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THE 


SECEET    SEEVICE, 


THE  FIELD,  THE  DUNGEON, 


AND 


THE  ESCAPE. 


11  Wherein  I  spoke  of  most  disastrous  chances, 
Of  moving  accidents,  by  flood  and  field; 
Of  hairbreadth  'scapes  i'  the  imminent  deadly  breach; 
Of  beiag  taken  by  the  insolent  foe, 
And  sold  to  slavery ;  of  my  redemption  tfaence." 

OTHELLO. 


BY 


ALBERT    D.   RICHARDSON, 

n 

TRIBUNE     CORRESPONDENT. 


onn., 

AMERICAN    PUBLISHING    COMPANY. 

JONES  BROS.  A  CO.,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  AND  CINCINNATI,  OHIO. 

R.  C.  TREAT,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 

1865. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866, 
Bv  ALBERT  D.  RICHARDSON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District 
of  Connecticut. 


TO 

fur  lUm0rj 

WHO  WAS    NEAREST    AND    DEAREST, 
WHOSE    LIFE    WAS    FULL    OF    BEAUTY   AND    OF    PROMISE, 

THIS   VOLUME 

IS    TENDERLY    INSCRIBED. 


list  if  91ln»tnrtin«B. 


Page. 

1.  PORTRAIT  OP  THE  AUTHOR, 1 

2.  "         of  Charles  C.  Coffin,  Army  Correspondent  of  the  Boston 

Journal, 17 

3.  "         of  Junius  II.  Browne,  Army  Correspondent  of  the  New  York 

Tribune, 17 

4.  "         of  Thomas  "W.  KROX,  Array  Correspondent  of  the  New  York 

HeraW, 17 

5.  "         of  Richard  T.  Cblburo,  Array  Correspondent  of  the  New  York 

World, 17 

6.  "         of  L.  L.  Crounse,  Army  Correspondent  of  the  New  York 

Times, 17 

7.  "         of  William  K  Davis*  Army  Correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati 

Gazette, 17 

8.  "         of  "William-  D.  Bickham,  Army  Correspondent  of  the  Cincin 

nati  Commercial, 17 

9.  The  MISSISSIPPI  CONTENTION  VIEWED  BY  A  TRIBUNE  CORRESPONDENT,    80 

10.  OPENING  OP  THE  BATTLE  OP  ANTIETAM. — GENERAL  HOOKER, 280 

11.  FAG-SIMILE  OP  AN  AUTOGRAPH  LETTER  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN, 321 

12.  THE  CAPTURE,  WHILE  RUNNING  THE  REBEL  BATTERIES  AT  VICKSBURG,  344 

13.  INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  HOSPITAL  IN  THE  SALISBURY  PRISON, 416 

14.  THE  MASSACRE  OP  UNION  PRISONERS  ATTEMPTING  TO  ESCAPE  FROM 

SALISBURY,  NORTH  CAROLINA, 420 

15.  ESCAPING  PRISONERS  FED  BY  NEGROES  IN  THEIR  MASTER'S  BARN, 440 

16.  FORDING  A  STREAM, 472 

17.  PORTRAIT  OP  DAN.  ELLIS,  . . 488 

18.  PORTRAIT  OF  "  THE  NAMELESS  HEROINE, n 49G 

19.  "-THE  NAMELESS  HEROINE "  PILOTING  THE  ESCAPING  PRISONERS  OUT  OF 

A  REBEL  AMBUSH,.... 5.02 


CONTENTS. 


L— THE  SECRET  SERVICE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Going  South  in  tho  Secret  Service. — Instructions  from  the  Managing 
Editor. — A  Visit  to  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky. — Nashville, 
Tennessee. — Alabama  Unionists. — How  the  State  was  Precipitated 
into  the  Rebellion. — Reaching  Memphis. — Abolitionists  Mobbed  and 
Hanged. — Brutalities  of  Slavery 17 

CHAPTER    II. 

In  Memphis. — How  the  Secessionists  Carried  the  Day. — Aims  of  the 
Leading  Rebels. — On  the  Railroad. — A  Northerner  "Warned. — An 
Amusing  Dialogue. — Talk  about  Assassinating  President  Lincoln. — 
Arrival  in  New  Orleans. — Hospitality  from  a  Stranger. — An  Ovation 
to  General  Twiggs. — Braxton  Bragg. — The  Rebels  Anxious  for  War. — 
A  Glance  at  the  Louisiana  Convention. . ,  .31 


CHAPTER    III. 

Association  with  Leading  Secessionists. — Their  Hatred  of  New  Eng 
land. — Admission  to  the  Democratic  Club. — Abuse  of  President  Lin 
coln. — Sinking  Buildings,  Cellars  and  Walls  Impossible. — Cemeteries 
above  Ground. — Monument  of  a  Pirate. — Canal  Street. — The  Great 
French  Markets. — Dedication  of  a ,  Secession  Flag  in  the  Catholic 
Church. — The  Cotton  Presses. — Visit  to  the  Jackson  Battle-ground. — 
The  Creoles. — Jackson's  Head-Quarters. — A  Fire  in  the  Rear. — A  Life 
Saved  by  a  Cigar. — A  Black  Republican  Flag. — Vice-President  Hamlin 
a  Mulatto. — Northerners  leaving  the  South 43 

CHAPTER    IV. 

How  Letters  were  Written  and  Transmitted.— A  System  of  Cipher. — 
A  Philadelphian  among  the  Rebels.— Probable  fate  of  a  Tribune  Cor- 


8  .     CONTENTS. 

respondent,  if  Discovered. — Southern  Manufactures. — A  Visit  to  a 
Southern  Shoe  Factory. — Where  the  Machinery  and  Workmen  came 
from. — How  Southern  Shoes  were  Made. — Study  of  Southern  Soci 
ety. — Report  of  a  Slave  Auction. — Sale  of  a  White  Woman. — Girls 
on  the  Block. — Husbands  and  Wives  Separated. — A  most  Revolting 
Spectacle.— The  Delights  of  a  Tropical  Climate 57 

CHAPTER   V. 

A  Northerner  among  the  Minute  Men. — Louisiana  Convention. — A  Live 
ly  Discussion. — Boldness  &f  the  Union  Members. — Another  Exciting 
Discussion. — Secessionists  Repudiate  their  Own  Doctriu  as.  — Despotic 
Rebel  Theories.— The  Northwest  to  Join  the  Rebels.— The  Great 
Swamp. — A  Trip  through  Louisiana. — The  Tribune  Correspondent 
Invited  to  a  Seat  in  the  Mississippi  Convention 71 

CHAPTER    VI. 

The  Mississippi  State-House. — View  of  the  Rebel  Hall. — Its  General  Air 
of  Dilapidation. — A  Free-and-Easy  Convention. — Southern  Orators. 
— The  Anglo-African  Delegate. — A  Speech  Worth  Preserving. — Fa 
miliar  Conversation  of  Members. — New  Orleans  Again. — Reviewing 
Troops. — New  Orleans  Again, — Hatred  of  Southern  Unionists. — 
Three  Obnoxious  Northerners, — The  Attack  on  Sumter. — Rebel  Bra 
vado  81 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Abolition  Tendencies  of  KentuekiaTis. — Fundamental  Grievances  of  the 
Rebels.— Sudden  Departure  from  New  Orleans.— Mobile.— The  War 
Spirit  High. — An  Awkward  Encounter. — "Massa,  Fort  Sumter  has 
gone  Up.1'—  Bells  Ringing. — Cannon  Booming. — Up  the  Alabama 
River. — A  Dancing  Little  Darkey. — HowkvEscape  Suspicion. — South 
ern  Characteristics  and  Provincialism. — Visit  to  the  Confederate 
Capital. — At  Montgomery,  Alabama. — Copperas  Breeches  vs.  Black 
Breeches. — A  Correspondent  under  Arrest, 91 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

A  Journey  Through  Georgia. — Excitement  of  the  People. — Washington 
to  be  Captured. — Apprehensions  about  Arming  the  Negroes. — A  Fa 
tal  Question. — Charleston. — Looking  at  For,t  Smnter. — A  Short  Stay 
in  the  City. — North  Carolina.  —The  Country  on  Fire. — Submitting  to 
Rebel  Scrutiny. — The  North  Heard  From. — Richmond,  Virginia. — 
The  Frenzy  of  the  People. — Up  the  Potomac. — The  Old  Flag  Once 
More. — An  Hour  with  President  Lincoln. — Washington  iii  Panic. — 


CONTENTS.  9 

A  Regiment  which  Came  Out  to  Fight.— Baltimore  under  Rebel  Rule. 
— Pennsylvania. — The  North  fully  Aroused. — Uprising  of  the  whole 
People — A  Tribune  Correspondent  on  Trial  in  Charleston. — He  is 
Warned  to  Leave. — His  Fortunate  Escape 105 


II.— THE  FIELD. 

CHAPTER    IX. 

Sunday  at  Niagara  Falls. — View  from  the  Suspension  Bridge. — The  Pal 
ace  of  the  Frost  King. — Chicago,  a  City  Rising  from  the  Earth. — Mys 
teries  of  Western  Currency. — A  Horrible  Spectacle  in  Arkansas. — 
Patriotism  of  the  Northwest. — Missouri. — The  Rebels  bent  on  Revo 
lution. — Nathaniel  Lyon. — Camp  Jackson. — Sterling  Price  Joins  the 
Rebels. — His  Quarrel  with  Frank  Blair. — His  Personal  Character. — 
St  Louis  in  a  Convulsion. — A  Nashville  Experience. — Bitterness  of 
Old  Neighbors. — Good  Soldiers  for  Scaling  Walls. — Wholesome  Ad 
vice  to  Missouri  Slaveholders 125 

CHAPTER    X. 

Cairo,  Illinois. — A  Visit  from  General  McClellan. — A  little  Speech-mak 
ing.— Penalty  of  Writing  for  The  Tribune. — A  Unionist  Aided  to  Es 
cape  from  Memphis  by  a  Loyal  Girl. — The  Fascinations  of  Cairo. — 
The  Death  of  Douglas. — A  Clear-headed  Contraband. — -A  Review  of 
the  Troops. — "Not  a  Fighting  Nigger,  but  a  Running  Nigger."— 
Capture  of  a  Rebel  Flag 141 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Missouri  Again. — The  Retributions  of  Time. — A  Railroad  Reminis 
cence. — Jefferson  City. — A  Fugitive  Governor. — "  Black  Republican 
ism." — Belligerent  Chaplain. — A  Rebel  Newspaper  Converted  by  the 
Iowa  Soldiers. — Two  Camp  Stories  of  the  Marvelous 151 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Chicago. — Corn,  not  Cotton,  is  King. — Curious  Reminiscences  of  the 
City.— A  Visit  to  the  Grave  of  Douglas. — Patriotism  of  the  North 
western  Germans. — Their  Social  Habits. — Cincinnati  in  the  Early 
Days.— A  City  Founded  by  a  Woman. — The  Aspirations  of  the  Cin- 
cinnatian^— Kentucky,— Treason  and  Loyalty  in  Louisville. — A  Visit 
to  George-  D..  Prentice-..— The  first  Union  Troops  of  Kentucky. — 


10  CONTENTS. 

Struggle  in  the  Kentucky  Legislature. — What  the  Rebel  Leaders 
Want. — Rousseau's  Visit  to  Washington. — His  Interview  with  Presi 
dent  Lincoln. — Timidity  of  the  Kentucky  Unionists. — Loyalty  of 
Judge  Lusk 157 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Western  Virginia. — Campaigning  in  the  Kanawha  Valley. — A  Blood 
thirsty  Female  Rehel. — A  Soldier  Proves  to  be  a  Woman  in  Disguise. — 
Extravagant  Joy  of  the  Negroes. — How  the  Soldiers  Foraged. — The 
Falls  of  the  Kanawha.— A  Tragedy  of  Slavery.— St.  Louis.— The  Fu 
ture  of  the  City. — A  disgusted  Rebel  Editor 173 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

The  Battle  of  Wilson  Creek. — Daring  Exploit  of  a  Kansas  Officer.— 
Death  of  Lyon. — His  Courage  and  Patriotism. — Arrival  of  General 
Fremont. — Union  Families  Driven  Out. — An  Involuntary  Sojourn  in 
Rebel  Camps. — A  Startling  Confederate  Atrocity 181 

CHAPTER    XV. 

Jefferson  City,  Missouri. — Fremont's  Army. — Organization  of  the  Bohe 
mian  Brigade. — An  Amusing  Inquiry. — Diversions  of  the  Corres 
pondents. — A  Polite  Army  Chaplain. — Sights  in  Jefferson  City. — 
"Fights  mit  Sigel." — Fremont's  Head-Quarters. — Appearance  of  the 
General. — Mrs.  Fremont. — Sigel,  Hunter,  Pope,  Asboth,  McKins- 
try. — Sigel's  Transportation  Train. — A  Countryman's  Estimate  of 
Troops 189 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

A  Kid-gloved  Corps. — Charge  of  Fremont's  Body-guard.— Major  White. 
— Turning  the  Tables. — Welcome  from  the  Union  Residents  of  Spring 
field. — Freaks  of  the  Kansas  Brigade — A  Visit  to  the  Wilson-Creek 
Battle-Ground. — "Missing." — Graves  Opened  by  Wolves. — Capture 
of  a  Female  Spy. — Fremont's  Farewell  to  His  Army. — Dissatisfaction 
Among  the  Soldiers. — Spurious  Missouri  Unionists. — The  Conduct  of 
Secretary  Cameron  and  Adjutant-General  Thomas 199 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

Rebel  Guerrillas  Outwitted. — Expedition  to  Fort  Henry. — Scenes  in  the 
Captured  Fort. — Commodore  Foote  in  the  Pulpit. — Capture  of  Fort 
Donelson. — Scenes  in  Columbus,  Kentucky. — A  Curious  Anti-Cli 
max.— Hospital  Scenes 213 


CONTENTS.  11 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

Down  the  Mississippi. — Bombardment  of  Island  Number  Ten. — Sensa 
tions  under  Fire. — Flanking  the  Island. — Daily  Life  on  a  Gunboat. — 
Triumph  of  Engineering  Skill. — The  Surrender 225 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

The  Battle  of  Shiloh.— With  the  Sanitary  Commission. — A  Union  Ora 
tor  in  Rebel  Hands.— Grant  and  Sherman  in  Battle.— Hair-breadth 
'Scapes. — General  Sweeney. — Arrival  of  Buell's  Army. — The  Final 
Struggle. — Losses  of  the  Two  Armies 235 


CHAPTER    XX. 

Grant  under  a  Cloud.— He  Smokes  and  Waits. — Military  Jealousies. — 
The  Union  and  Rebel  Wounded  .  .  .243 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

An  Interview  with  General  Sherman. — His  Complaints  about  the  Press. 
• — Sherman's  Personal  Appearance. — Humors  of  the  Telegraph. — 
Our  Advance  upon  Corinth. — Weaknesses  of  Sundry  Generals. — "Ten 
Thousand  Prisoners  Taken." — Halleck's  Faux  Pas  at  Corinth. — Out 
on  the  Front. — Among  the  Sharp-shooters. — Halleck  -and  the  War 
Correspondents 247 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

Bloodthirstiness  of  Rebel  Women. — The  Battle  of  Memphis. — Gallant 
Exploit  of  the  Rams. — A  Sailor  on  a  Lark. — Appearance  of  the  Cap 
tured  City. — The  Jews  in  Memphis. — A  Rebel  Paper  Supervised. — 
"A  Dam  Black-harted  Ablichiness." — Challenge  from  a  Southern 
Woman. — Valuable  Currency. — A  Rebel  Trick. — One  of  Sherman's 
Jokes.— Fictitious  Battle  Reports.—  Curtis's  March  through  Arkan 
sas. — The  Siege  of  Cincinnati 259 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

With  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. — On  the  War-Path. — A  Duel  in  Ari 
zona. — How  Correspondents  Avoided  Expulsion. — Shameful  Surren 
der  of  Harper's  Ferry. — General  Hooker  at  Antietam.—"  Stormed  at 
with  Shot  and  Shell"— A  Night  Among  the  Pickets.— The  Battle 
field..,  .  275 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

The  Day  after  the  Battle. — Among  the  Dead. — Lee  Permitted  to  Escape. 
— The  John  Brown  Engine-House. — President  Lincoln  Reviewing  the 
Army. — Dodging  Cannon  Balls. — "An  Intelligent  Contraband.'1 — 
Harper's  Ferry. — Curiosities  of  the  Signal  Corps-. — View  from  Mary 
land  Hights 287 

CHAPTER    XXV, 

Marching  Southward. — Rebel  Girl  with  Sharp  Tongue. — A  Slight  Mis 
take. — Removal  of  General  McClellan. — Familiarity  of  the  Pickets. — 
The  Life  of  an  Army  Correspondent, — A  Negro's  Idea  of  Freedom. 
The  Battle  of  Frederieksburg. — A  Telegraphic  Blunder. — The  Bat 
teries  at  Fredericksburg. — A  Disappointed  Virginian. — The  Spirit  of 
the  Army  under  Defeat,. , 299 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

Reminiscences  of  President  Lincoln, — His  Great  Canvass  with  Douglas. — 
His  Visit  to  Kansas. — His  Manner  of  Public  Speaking. — High  Praise 
from  an  Opponent. — A  Deed  without  a  Name. — Sherman's  Quarrel 
with  the  Press, — An  Army  Correspondent  Court-Martialed. — A 
Visit  to  President  Lincoln.— Two  of  his  "Little  Stories." — His  famil 
iar  Conversation. — Opinions  about  McClellan  and  Vicksburg. — Our 
best  Contribution  to  History. ... 311 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

Reminiscences  of  General  Sumner. — His  Conduct  in  Kansas — A  Thril 
ling  Scene  in  Battle. — How  Sumner  Fought.: — Ordered  Back  by  Mc 
Clellan. — Love  for  his  OM  Comrades. — Traveling  Through  the  North 
west. — A  Visit  to  Rosecrans's  Army. — Rosecrans  in  a  Great  Battle. — 
A  Scene  in  Memphis- 327 


III— THE  DUNGEOK 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Running  the  Vicksbnrg  Batteries. — Expedition  Badly  Fitted  Out. — 
"Into  the  Jaws  of  Death." — A  Moment  of  Suspense. — Disabled  and 
Drifting  Helplessly. — Bombarding,  Scalding,  Burning,  Drowning. — 
Taking  to  a  Hay  Bale. — Overturned.: — Rescued  from  the  River. — The 
Killed,  Wounded,  and  Missing. . ,,,. 337 


CONTENTS.  13 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

Standing  by  Our  Colors.— Confinement  in  the  Vicksburg  Jail.— Sympa 
thizing  Sambo.— Parolled  to  Return  Home.— Turning  the  Tables. — 
Visit  from  Many  Rebels. — Interview  with  Jacob  Thompson. — Arrival 
in  Jackson,  Mississippi. — Kindness  of  Southern  Rebels. — A  Project 
for  Escape 347 

CHAPTER    XXX. 

A  Word  with  a  Union  Woman. — Grierson's  Great  Raid. — Stumping  tjie 
State. — An  Enraged  Texan  Officer. — Waggery  of  a  Captured  Journal 
ist. — The  Alabama  River. — Atlanta  Editors  Advocate  Hanging  the 
Prisoners. — Renegade  Vermonters 357 

CHAPTER    XXXL 

Arrival  in  Richmond. — Lodged  in  Libby  Prison. — Sufferings  from  Ver 
min. — Prisoners  Denounced  as  Blasphemous. — Thieving  of  a  Virginia 
Gentleman. — Brutality  of  Captain  Turner. — Prisoners  Murdered  by 
the  Guards. — Fourth  of  July  Celebration, — The  Horrors  of  Belle 
Isle..  ,  365 


CHAPTER    XXXIL 

The  Captains  Ordered  Below. — Two  Selected  for  Execution.— The 
Gloomiest  Night  in  Prison. — Glorious  Revulsion  of  Feeling. — Excit 
ing  Discussion  in  Prison. — Stealing  Money  from  the  Captives. — Hor 
rible  Treatment  of  Northern  Citizens, — Extravagant  Rumors  among 
the  Prisoners 373 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

Transferred  to  Castle  Thunder. — Better  than  the  Libby. — Determined 
Not  to  Die. — A  Negro  Cruelly  Whipped. — The  Execution  of  Spencer 
Kellogg. — Steadfastness  of  Southern  Unionists 381 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

A  Waggish  Journalist. — Proceedings  of  a  Mock  Court. — Escape  by  Kill 
ing  a  Guard. — Escape  by  Playing  Negro. — Escape  by  Forging  a  Re 
lease. — Escaped  Prisoner  at  Jeff  Davis's  Levee».  _ 387 

CHAPTER    XXXV. 

Assistance  from  a  Negro  Boy. — The  Prison  Officers  Enraged. — Visit 
from  a  Friendly  Woman. — Shut  up  in  a  Cell. — Stealing  from  Flag-of- 


14  CONTENTS. 

Truce  Letters. — Parols  Repudiated  by  the  Rebels. — Sentenced  to  the 
Salisbury  Prison. — Abolitionists  before  the  War 393 

CHAPTER    XXXYI. 

The  Open  Air  and  Pure  Water. — The  Crushing  "Weight  of  Imprison* 
ment. — Bad  News  from  Home. — The  Great  Libby  Tunnel. — Escape 
of  Colonel  Streight. — Horrible  Sufferings  of  Union  Officers. — A  Cool 
Method  of  Escape. — Captured  through  the  Obstinacy  of  a  Mule.— 
Concealing  Money  when  Searched. — Attempts  to  Escape  Frustrated. 
— Yankee  Deserters  Whipped  and  Hanged 401 

CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

Great  Influx  of  Prisoners. — Starving  in  the  Midst  of  Food.— Freezing  in 
the  Midst  of  Fuel. — Rebel  Surgeons  Generally  Humane. — Terrible 
Scenes  in  the  Hospitals. — The  Rattling  Dead- Cart. — Cruelty  of  our 
Government. — General  Butler's  Example  of  Retaliation 411 

CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

Attempted  Outbreak  and  Massacre. — Cold-blooded  Murders  Frequent. — 
Hostility  to  The  Tribune  Correspondents. — A  Cruel  Injustice. — Rebel 
Expectations  of  Peace. — The  Prison  Like  the  Tomb. — Something 
about  Tunneling. — The  Tunnelers  Ingeniously  Baffled 419 


IV.— THE  ESCAPE. 

CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

Fifteen  Months  of  Fruitless  Endeavor. — A  Fearful  Journey  in  Prospect. 
— A  Friendly  Confederate  Officer. — Effects  of  Hunger  and  Cold. — 
Another  Plan  in  Reserve. — Passing  the  Sentinel. — uBeg  Pardon, 
Sir." — Encountering  Rebel  Acquaintances 427 

CHAPTER    XL. 

*  Out  of  the  Jaws  of  Death." — Concealed  in  Sight  of  the  Prison. — Cer 
tain  to  be  Brought  Back. — Commencing  the  Long  Journey. — Too 
Weak  for  Traveling. — Severe  March  m  the  Rain 435 


CONTENTS.  15 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

^  Cabin  of  Friendly  Negroes. — Southerners  Unacquainted  with  Tea. — 
Walking  Twelve  Miles  for  Nothing. — Every  Negro  a  Friend. — Touch 
ing  Fidelity  of  the  Slaves. — Pursued  by  a  Home-Guard. — Help  in  the 
Last  Extremity. — Carried  Fifteen  Miles  by  Friends 441 


CHAPTER    XLII, 

A  Curious  Dilemma. — Food,  Shelter,  and  Friends. — Loyalty  of  the 
Mountaineers. — A  Levee  in  a  Barn. — Visited  by  an  Old  Friend. — A 
Day  of  Alarms. — A  Woman's  Ready  Wit. — Danger  of  Detection 
from  Snoring. — Promises  to  Aid  Suffering  Comrades. — A  Repentant 
Rebel 449 

CHAPTER    XLIII. 

Flanking  a  Rebel  Camp. — Secreted  among  the  Husks. — Wandering  from 
the  Road. — Crossing  the  Yadkin  River. — Union  Bushwhackers. — 
Union  Soldiers  "  Lying  Out."— An  Energetic  Invalid 461 

CHAPTER    XLIV. 

Money  Concealed  in  Clothing. — Peril  of  Union  Citizens. — Fording 
Creeks  at  Midnight. — Climbing  the  Blue  Ridge. — Crossing  the  New 
River  at  Midnight 469 

CHAPTER    XLV. 

Over  Mountains  and  Through  Ravines. — Mistaken  for  Confederate 
Guards. — A  Rebel  Guerrilla  Killed. — Meeting  a  Former  Fellow-Pris 
oner. — Alarm  about  Rebel  Cavalry. — A  Stanch  old  Unionist. — The 
Greatest  Danger.— A  Well  Fortified  Refuge 477 

CHAPTER    XLVI. 

Dan  Ellis,  the  Union  Guide. — In  Good  Hands  at  Last. — Ellis's  Bravery. — 
Lost !  A  Perilous  Blunder. — A  most  Fortunate  Encounter. — Rejoin 
ing  Dan  and  His  Party.— A  Terrible  March 487 

CHAPTER    XLVII. 

Fording  Creeks  in  the  Darkness. — Prospect  of  a  Dreary  Night. — Sleep 
ing  among  the  Husks. — Turning  Back  in  Discouragement. — An 


16  CONTENTS. 

Alarm  at  Midnight.— A  Young  Lady  for  a  Guide.— The  Nameless 
Heroine - 495 

CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

Among  the  Delectable  Mountains. — Separation  from  Friends. — Union 
Women  Scrutinizing  the  Yankee. — "  Slide  Down  off  that  Horse." — 
Friendly  Words,  but  Hostile  Eyes. — Hospitalities  of  a  Loyal  Patri 
arch.—"  Out  of  the  Mouth  of  Hell." .503 


THE  FIELD,  THE  DUNGEON,  AND  THE  ESCAPE. 


i. 

THE   SECRET   SERVICE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I  will  go  on  the  slightest  errand  now  to  the  antipodes  that  you  can  desire  to  send 
m«  on. — MUCH  ADO  ABOUT  NOTHING. 

EAKLY  in  1861,  I  felt  a  strong  desire  to  look  at  the 
Secession  movement  for  myself;  to  learn,  by  personal 
observation,  whether  it  sprang  from  the  people  or  not ; 
what  the  Revolutionists  wanted,  what  they  hoped,  and 
what  they  feared. 

But  the  southern  climate,  never  propitious  to  the 
longevity  of  Abolitionists,  was  now  unfavorable  to  the 
health  of  every  northerner,  no  matter  how  strong  his 
political  constitution.  I  felt  the  danger  of  being  recog 
nized  ;  for  several  years  of  roving  journalism,  and  a 
good  deal  of  political  speaking  on  the  frontier,  had 
made  my  face  familiar  to  persons  whom  I  did  not 
remember  at  all,  and  given  me  that  large  and  motley 
acquaintance  which  every  half-public  life  necessitates. 

Moreover,  I  had  passed  through  the  Kansas  struggle  ; 
and  many  former  shining  lights  of  Border  Ruffianism 
were  now,  with  perfect  fitness,  lurid  torches  in  the  early 
bonfires  of  Secession.  I  did  not  care  to  meet  their  eyes, 

for  I  could  not  remember  a  single  man  of  them  all  who 
2 


18  THE  MANAGING  EDITOR.  [isei. 

would  "be  likely  to  love  me,  either  wisely  or  too  well. 
But  the  newspaper  instinct  was  strong  within  me,  and 
the  journalist  who  deliberates  is  lost.  My  hesitancy 
resulted  in  writing  for  a  roving  commission  to  represent 
THE  TEIBUNE  in  the  Southwest. 

A  few  days  after,  I  found  the  Managing  Editor  in 
his  office,  going  through  the  great  pile  of  letters  the 
morning  mail  had  "brought  him,  with  the  wonderful 
rapidity  which  quick  intuition,  long  experience,  and 
natural  fitness  for  that  most  delicate  and  onerous  posi 
tion  alone  can  give.  For  the  modern  newspaper  is  a 
sort  of  intellectual  iron-clad,  upon  which,  while  the 
Editorial  Captain  makes  out  the  reports  to  his  chief, 
the  public,  and  entertains  the  guests  in  his  elegant 
cabin,  the  leading  column,  and  receives  the  credit  for 
every  broadside  of  type  and  every  paper  bullet  of  the 
brain  poured  into  the  enemy, — back  out  of  sight  is  an 
Executive  Officer,  with  little  popular  fame,  who  keeps 
the  ship  all  right  from  hold  to  maintop,  looks  to  every 
detail  with  sleepless  vigilance,  and  whose  life  is  a 
daily  miracle  of  hard  work. 

The  Manager  went  through  his  mail,  I  think,  at  the 
rate  of  one  letter  per  minute.  He  made  final  disposition 
of  each  when  it  came  into  his  hand  ;  acting  upon  the 
great  truth,  that  if  he  laid  one  aside  for  future  consid 
eration,  there  would  soon  be  a  series  of  strata  upon 
his  groaning  desk,  which  no  mental  geologist  could 
fathom  or  classify.  Some  were  ruthlessly  thrown  into 
the  waste-basket.  Others,  with  a  lightning  pencil- 
stroke,  to  indicate  the  type  and  style  of  printing,  were 
placed  on  the  pile  for  the  composing-room.  A  few  great 
packages  of  manuscript  were  re- enclosed  in  envelopes 
for  the  mail,  with  a  three-line  note,  which,  while  1 
did  not  read,  I  knew  must  run  like  this : — 


i86i.]  PRELIMINARY  INSTRUCTIONS.  19 

"MY  DEAE  SIR — Your  article  has  unquestionable  merit;  but  by  tha 
imperative  pressure  of  important  news  upon  our  columns,  we  are  very 
reluctantly  compelled,"  etc. 

There  was  that  quick,  educated  instinct,  which  reads 
the  whole  from  a  very  small  part,  taking  in  a  line  here  and 
a  key- word  there.  Two  or  three  glances  appeared  to 
decide  the  fate  of  each ;  yet  the  reader  was  not  wholly 
absorbed,  for  all  the  while  he  kept  up  a  running  con 
versation  : 

"I  received  your  letter.  Are  you  going  to  New  Or 
leans?" 

"  Not  unless  you  send  me." 

"I  suppose  you  know  it  is  rather  precarious  busi 
ness?" 

"0,  yes." 

"Two  of  our  correspondents  have  come  home  within 
the  last  week,  after  narrow  escapes.  We  have  six  still 
in  the  South ;  and  it  would  not  surprise  me,  this  very 
hour,  to  receive  a  telegram  announcing  the  imprison 
ment  or  death  of  any  one  of  them." 

"I  have  thought  about  all  that,  and  decided." 

"Then  we  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  you  go." 

"  When  may  I  start?" 

"To-day,  if  you  like." 

"  What  field  shall  I  occupy  ?" 

"As  large  a  one  as  you  please.  Go  and  remain  just 
where  you  think  best." 

"  How  long  shall  I  stay  ?" 

"  While  the  excitement  lasts,  if  possible.  Do  you 
know  how  long  you  will  stay  ?  You  will  be  back  here 
some  line  morning  in  just  about  two  weeks." 

"Wait  and  see." 

Pondering  upon  the  line  of  conduct  best  for  the 
journey,  I  remembered  the  injunction  of  the  immortal 


20  A  RIDE  THROUGH  KENTUCKY. 

Pickwick:  "It  is  always  best  on  these  occasions  to  do 
what  the  mob  do!"  "But,"  suggested  Mr.  Snodgrass, 
"  suppose  there  are  two  mobs  ?"  u  Shout  with  the  larg 
est"  replied  Mr.  Pickwick.  Volumes  could  not  say 
more.  Upon  this  plan  I  determined  to  act — concealing 
my  occupation,  political  views,  and  place  of  residence. 
It  is  not  pleasant  to  wear  a  padlock  upon  one's  tongue, 
for  weeks,  nor  to  adopt  a  course  of  systematic  duplicity ; 
but  personal  convenience  and  safety  rendered  it  an  in 
exorable  necessity. 

On  Tuesday,  February  26th,  I  left  Louisville,  Ken 
tucky,  by  the  Nashville  train.  Public  affairs  were 
the  only  topic  of  conversation  among  the  passengers. 
They  were  about  equally  divided  into  enthusiastic 
Secessionists,  urging  in  favor  of  the  new  movement 
that  negroes  already  commanded  higher  prices  than 
ever  before;  and  quasi  Loyalists,  reiterating,  "We 
only  want  Kentucky  to  remain  in  the  Union  as  long 
as  she  can  do  so  honorably."  Not  a  single  man  de 
clared  himself  unqualifiedly  for  the  Government. 

A  ride  of  live  hours  among  blue,  dreamy  hills, 
feathered  with  timber  ;  dense  forests,  with  their  droop 
ing  foliage  and  log  dwellings,  in  the  doors  of  which 
women  and  little  girls  were  complacently  smoking 
their  pipes;  great,  hospitable  farm-houses,  in  the  midst 
of  superb  natural  parks ;  tobacco  plantations,  upon 
which  negroes  of  both  sexes — the  women  in  cowhide 
brogans,  and  faded  frocks,  with  gaudy  kerchiefs 
wrapped  like  turbans  about  their  heads — were  hoe 
ing,  and  folloAving  the  plow,  brought  us  to  Cave  City. 

I  left  the  train  for  a  stage-ride  of  ten  miles  to  the 
Mammoth  Cave  Hotel.  In  the  midst  of  a  smooth  lawn, 
shaded  by  stately  oaks  and  slender  pines,  it  looms 
up  huge  and  white,  with  a  long,  low,  one-story  off- 


i8Gi.]  THE  CURIOSITIES  OF  WHITE'S  CAVE.  21 

shoot  fronted  by  a  deep  portico,  and  known  as  "the 
Cottages." 

Several  evening  hours  were  spent  pleasantly  in 
White's  Cave,  where  the  formations,  at  first  dull  and 
leaden,  turn  to  spotless  white  after  one  grows  accus 
tomed  to  the  dim  light  of  the  torches.  There  are  little 
lakes  so  utterly  transparent  that  your  eye  fails  to 
detect  the  presence  of  water ;  stone  drapery,  hanging 
in  graceful  folds,  and  forming  an  exquisitely  beautiful 
chamber ;  petrified  fountains,  where  the  water  still 
trickles  down  and  hardens  into  stone ;  a  honey-combed 
roof,  which  is  a  very  perfect  counterfeit  of  art ;  long 
rows  of  stalactites,  symmetrically  Cribbed  and  fluted, 
which  stretch  off  in  a  pleasing  colonnade,  and  other 
rare  specimens  of  Nature's  handiwork  in  her  fantastic 
moods.  Many  of  them  are  vast  in  dimension,  though 
the  geologists  declare  that  it  requires  thirty  years  to 
deposit  a  formation  no  thicker  than  a  wafer!  Well 
says  the  German  proverb  ' '  God  is  patient  because  he 
is  eternal." 

With  another  visitor  I  passed  the  next  day  in  the 
Mammoth  Cave.  "Mat,"  our  sable  cicerone,  had  been 
acting  in  the  capacity  of  guide  for  twenty-five  years, 
and  it  was  estimated  that  he  had  walked  more  than  fifty 
thousand  miles  under  ground.  The  story  is  not  so  im 
probable  when  one  remembers  that  the  passages  of  the 
great  cavern  are,  in  the  aggregate,  upwards  of  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  miles  in  length,  and  that  it  has  two  hun 
dred  and  twenty- six  known  chambers.  The  outfit  con 
sisted  of  two  lamps  for  himself  and  one  for  each  of  us. 
Cans  of  oil  are  kept  at  several  interior  points ;  for 
it  is  of  the  last  importance  that  visitors  to  this  laby 
rinth  of  darkness  should  keep  their  lamps  trimmed  and 
burning. 


22        THE  MAMMOTH  CAVE. — LUNG  COMPLAINTS.      [isei. 

The  thermometer  within  stands  constantly  at  fifty- 
nine  Fahrenheit;  and  the  cave  "breathes  just  once  a 
year.''  Through  the  winter  it  takes  one  long  inspiration, 
and  in  summer  the  air  rushes  steadily  outward.  Its 
vast  chambers  are  the  lungs  of  the  universe. 

In  1845,  a  number  of  wood  and  stone  cottages  were 
erected  in  the  cavern,  and  inhabited  by  consumptive 
patients,  who  believed  that  the  dry  atmosphere  and 
equable  temperature  would  prove  beneficial.  After 
three  or  four  months  their  faces  were  bloodless ;  the 
pupils  of  their  sunken  eyes  dilated  until  the  iris  became 
invisible  and  the  organs  appeared  black,  no  matter 
what  their  original  color.  Three  patients  died  in  the 
cave  ;  the  others  expired  soon  after  leaving  it. 

Mat  gave  a  vivid  description  of  these  invalids  flitting 
about  like  ghosts — their  hollow  coughs  echoing  and  re 
echoing  through  the  cavernous  chambers.  It  must  have 
looked  horrible — as  if  the  tomb  had  oped  its  ponderous 
and  marble  jaws,  that  its  victims  might  wander  about  in 
this  subterranean  Purgatory.  A  cemetery  would  seem 
cheerful  in  comparison  with  such  a  living  entombment. 
Volunteer  medical  advice,  like  a  motion  to  adjourn,  is 
always  in  order.  My  own  panacea  for  lung -com plaints 
would  be  exactly  the  opposite.  Mount  a  horse  or  take 
a  carriage,  and  ride,  by  easy  stages  at  first,  across  the 
great  plains  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  or  California, 
eating  and  sleeping  in  the  open  air.  Nature  is  very 
kind,  if  you  will  trust  her  fully  ;  and  in  the  atmosphere, 
which  is  so  dry  and  pure  that  fresh  meat,  cut  in  strips 
and  hung  up,  will  cure  without  salting  or  smoking,  and 
may  be  carried  all  over  the  world,  her  healing  power 
seems  almost  boundless. 

The  walls  and  roof  of  the  cave  were  darkened  and 
often  hidden  by  myriads  of  screeching  bats,  at  this 


1861.]      METHODIST  CHURCH. — FAT  MAN'S  MISERY.       23 

season  of  the  year  all  hanging  torpid  "by  the  claws,  with 
heads  downward,  and  unable  to  fly  away,  even  when 
subjected  to  the  cruel  experiment  of  being  touched  by 
the  torches. 

The  Methodist  Church  is  a  semi-circular  chamber,  in 
which  a  ledge  forms  the  natural  pulpit ;  and  logs, 
brought  in  wlten  religious  service  was  first  performed, 
fifty  years  ago,  in  perfect  preservation,  yet  serve  for 
seats.  Methodist  itinerants  and  other  clergymen  still 
preach  at  long  intervals.  Worship,  conducted  by  the 
"  dim  religious  light"  of  tapers,  and  accompanied  by  the 
effect  which  music  always  produces  in  subterranean 
halls,  must  be  peculiarly  impressive.  It  suggests  those 
early  days  in  the  Christian  Church,  when  the  hunted 
followers  of  Jesus  met  at  midnight  in  mountain  caverns, 
to  blend  in  song  their  reverent  voices  ;  to  hear  anew  the 
strange,  sweet  story  of  his  teachings,  his  death,  and  his 
all-embracing  love. 

Upon  one  of  the  walls  beyond,  a  figure  of  gypsum,  in 
bass-relief,  is  called  the  American  Eagle.  The  venerable 
bird,  in  consonance  with  the  evil  times  upon  which  he 
had  fallen,  was  in  a  sadly  ragged  and  dilapidated  con 
dition.  One  leg  and  other  portions  of  his  body  had 
seceded,  leaving  him  in  seeming  doubt  as  to  his  own 
identity ;  but  the  beak  was  still  perfect,  as  if  he  could 
send  forth  upon  occasion  his  ancient  notes  of  self-gratu- 

lation. 

i 

Minerva's  Dome  has  fluted  walls,  and  a  concave 
roof,  beautifully  honey-combed ;  but  no  statue  of  its 
mistress.  The  oft-invoked  goddess,  wearied  by  the 
merciless  orators  who  are  always  compelling  her  to  leap 
anew  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  has  doubtless,  in  some 
hidden  nook,  found  seclusion  and  repose. 

We  toiled  along  the  narrow,  tortuous  passage,  chis- 


24  A  RIDE  DOWN  THE  LETHE.  [isei. 

eled  through  the  rock  by  some  ancient  stream  of  water, 
and  appropriately  named  the  Fat  Man' s  Misery ;  wiped 
away  the  perspiration  in  the  ample  passage  "beyond, 
known  as  the  Great  Relief;  glanced  inside  the  Bacon 
Chamber,  where  the  little  masses  of  lime-rock  pendent 
from  the  roof  do  look  marvelonsly  like  esculent  hams ; 
peeped  down  into  the  cylindrical  Bottorrfless  Pit,  which 
the  reader  shall  be  told,  confidentially,  lias  a  bottom  just 
one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  below  the  surface  ;  laughed 
at  the  roof-figures  of  the  Giant,  his  Wife,  and  Child, 
which  resemble  a  caricature  from  Punch ;  admired  the 
delicate,  exquisite  flowers  of  white,  fibrous  gypsum, 
along  the  walls  of  Pensacola  Avenue ;  stood  beside  the 
Dead  Sea,  a  dark,  gloomy  body  of  water ;  crossed  the 
Styx  by  the  natural  bridge  which  spans  it,  and  halted 
upon  the  shore  of  Lethe. 

Then,  embarking  in  a  little  flat-boat,  we  slowly  glided 
along  the  river  of  Oblivion.  It  was  a  strange,  weird 
spectacle.  The  flickering  torches  dimly  revealed  the 
dark  inclosing  walls,  which  rise  abruptly  a  hundred 
feet  to  the  black  roof.  Our  sable  guide  looked,  in  the 
ghastly  light,  like  a  recent  importation  from  Pluto's 
domain ;  and  stood  in  the  bows,  steering  the  little  craft, 
which  moved  slowly  down  the  winding,  sluggish  river. 
The  deep  silence  was  only  broken  by  drops  of  water, 
which  fell  from  the  roof,  striking  the  stream  like  the  tick 
of  a  clock,  and  the  sharp  yip  of  the  paddle,  as  it  was 
thrust  into  the  wave  to  guide  us.  When  my  com 
panion  evoked  from  his  flute  strains  of  slow  music, 
which  resounded  in  hollow  echoes  through  the  long- 
vault,  it  grew  so  demoniac,  that  I  almost  expected  the 
walls  to  open  and  reveal  a  party  of  fiends,  dancing  to 
infernal  music  around  a  lurid  fire.  I  never  saw  any 
stage  effect  or  work  of  art  that  could  compare  with  it 


1861.]   THE  STAR  CHAMBER. — MAGNIFICENT  DISTANCES.    25 

If  one  would  enjoy  the  most  vivid  sensations  of  the 
grand  and  gloomy,  let  him  float  down  Lethe  to  the 
sound  of  a  dirge. 

We  first  saw  the  Star  Chamber  with  the  lights  with 
drawn.  It  revealed  to  us  the  meaning  of  "darkness 
visible."  We  seemed  to  feel  the  dense  blackness  against 
our  eye-balls.  An  object  within  half  an  inch  of  them 
was  not  in  the  faintest  degree  perceptible.  If  one  were 
left  alone  here,  reason  could  not  long  sustain  itself. 
Even  a  few  hours,  in  the  absence  of  light,  would  proba 
bly  shake  it.  In  numberless  little  spots,  the  dark  gyp 
sum  has  scaled  oif,  laying  bare  minute  sections  of  the 
white  limestone  roof,  resembling  stars.  When  the  cham 
ber  was  lighted  the  illusion  became  perfect.  We  seemed 
in  a  deep,  rock-walled  pit,  gazing  up  at  the  starry  firma 
ment.  The  torch,  slowly  moved  to  throw  a  shadow 
along  the  roof,  produced  the  effect  of  a  cloud  sailing 
over  the  sky  ;  but  the  scene  required  no  such  aid  to  ren 
der  it  one  of  marvelous  beauty.  The  Star  Chamber  is 
the  most  striking  picture  in  all  this  great  gallery  of 
.Nature. 

My  companion  had  spent  his  whole  life  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  cave,  but  now  visited  it  for  the  first  time. 
Thus  it  is  always  ;  objects  which  pilgrims  come  half 
across  the  world  to  see,  we  regard  with  indifference  at 
our  own  doors.  Persons  have  passed  all  their  days  in 
sight  of  Mount  Washington,  and  yet  never  looked  upon 
the  grand  panorama  from  its  brow.  Men  have  lived 
from  childhood  almost  within  sound  of  the  roar  of 
Niagara,  without  ever  gazing  on  the  vast  fountain, 
where  mother  Earth,  like  Rachel,  weeps  for  her  children, 
and  will  not  be  comforted.  We  appreciate  no  enjoy 
ment  justly,  until  we  see  it  through  the  charmed  medium 
of  magnificent  distances. 


26  POLITICAL  FEELING  IN  KENTUCKY.  [Isei. 

Throughout  Kentucky  the  pending  troubles  were 
uppermost  in  every  heart  and  on  every  tongue.  One 
gentleman,  in  conversation,  thus  epitomized  the  feeling 
of  the  State  :— 

"We  have  more  wrongs  to  complain  of  than  any 
other  slave  community,  for  Kentucky  loses  more  negroes 
than  all  the  cotton  States  combined.  But  Secession  is  no 
remedy.  It  would  be  jumping  out  of  the  frying-pan  into 
the  fire." 

Another,  whose  head  was  silvered  with  age,  said  to 
me:— 

"  When  I  was  a  boy  here  in  this  county,  some  of  our 
neighbors  started  for  New  Orleans  on  a  flat-boat.  As  we 
bade  them  good-by,  we  never  expected  to  see  them 
again ;  we  thought  they  were  going  out  of  the  world. 
But,  after  several  months,  they  returned,  having  come 
on  foot  all  the  way,  through  the  Indian  country,  pack 
ing*  their  blankets  and  provisions.  Now  we  come  from 
New  Orleans  in  five  days.  I  thank  God  to  have  lived  in 
this  age — the  age  of  the  Railroad,  the  Telegraph,  and  the 
Printing  Press.  Ours  was  the  greatest  nation  and  the 
greatest  era  in  history.  But  that  is  all  past  now.  The 
Government  is  broken  to  pieces  ;  the  slave  States  can  not 
obtain  their  rights ;  and  those  which  have  seceded  will 
never  come  back." 

An  old  farmer  "  reckoned,"  as  I  traveled  a  good  deal, 
that  I  might  know  better  than  he  whether  there  was  any 
hope  of  a  peaceable  settlement.  If  the  North,  as  he 
believed,  was  willing  to  be  just,  an  overwhelming  ma 
jority  of  Kentuckians  would  stand  by  the  Union.  "  It  is 
a  great  pity,"  he  said,  very  earnestly,  in  a  broken  voice, 
"that  we  Americans  could  not  Kve  harmoniously,  like 

*  Vernacular  for  carrying  a  load  upon  the  back  of  a  man  or  animal. 


1861.]         COTTON-FIELDS. AN  INDIGNANT  ALABAMIAN.  27 

brethren,  instead  of  always  quarreling  about  a  few 
niggers." 

My  recollections  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  include  only 
an  unpalatable  breakfast  in  one  of  its  abominable  hotels  ; 
a  glimpse  at  some  of  its  pleasant  shaded  streets  and 
marble  capitol,  which,  with  the  exception  of  that  in 
Columbus,  Ohio,  is  considered  the  finest  State-house  on 
the  continent. 

Continuing  southward,  I  found  the  country  already 
"  appareled  in  the  sweet  livery  of  spring."  The  elm  and 
gum  trees  wore  their  leafy  glory ;  the  grass  and  wheat 
carpeted  the  ground  with  swelling  verdure,  and  field  and 
forest  glowed  with  the  glossy  green  of  the  holly.  The 
railway  led  through  large  cotton-fields,  where  many 
negroes,  of  both  sexes,  were  plowing  and  hoeing,  while 
overseers  sat  upon  the  high,  zig-zag  fences,  armed  with 
rifles  or  shot-guns.  On  the  withered  stalks  snowy  tufts 
of  cotton  were  still  protruding  from  the  dull  brown  bolls 
— portions  of  the  last  year's  crop,  which  had  never  been 
picked,  and  were  disappearing  under  the  plow. 

A  native  Kentuckian,  now  a  young  merchant  in  Ala 
bama,  was  one  of  my  fellow-passengers.  He  pronounced 
the  people  aristocratic.  They  looked^  down  upon  every 
man  who  worked  for  his  living — indeed,  upon  every  one 
who  did  not  own  negroes.  The  ladies  were  pretty,  and 
often  accomplished,  but,  he  mildly  added,  he  would  like 
them  better  if  they  did  not  "dip."  He  insisted  that 
Alabama  had  been  precipitated  into  the  revolution. 

"  We  were  swindled  out  of  our  rights.  In  my  own 
town,  Jere  Clemens — an  ex-United  States  senator,  and 
one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  State — was  elected  to  the 
convention  on  the  strongest  public  pledges  of  Unionism. 
When  the  convention  met,  he  went  completely  over  to 
the  enemy.  The  leaders — a  few  heavy  slaveholders, 


28        "  OUR  CORRESPONDENT"  AS  A  NEW  MEXICAN.      [ISGI. 

aided  by  political  demagogues — dared  not  submit  the 
Secession  ordinance  to  a  popular  vote  ;  they  knew  the 
people  would  defeat  them.  They  are  determined  on  war  ; 
they  will  exasperate  the  ignorant  masses  to  the  last  degree 
before  they  allow  them  to  vote  on  any  test  question.  I 
trust  the  Government  will  put  them  down  by  force  of 
arms,  no  matter  what  the  cost I" 

The  same  evening,  crossing  the  Alabama  line,  I  was 
in  the  "  Confederate  States  of  America."  At  the  little 
town  of  Athens,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  still  floating  ; 
as  the  train  left,  I  cast  a  longing  look  at  the  old  flag, 
wondering  when  I  should  see  it  again. 

The  next  person  who  took  a  seat  beside  me  went 
through  the  formula  of  questions,  usual  between 
strangers  in  the  South  and  the  Far  West,  asking  my 
name,  residence,  business,  and  destination.  He  was 
informed,  in  reply,  that  I  lived  in  the  Territory  of  New 
Mexico,  and  was  now  traveling  leisurely  to  New 
Orleans,  designing  to  visit  Yera  Cruz  and  the  City  ot 
Mexico  before  returning  home.  This  hypothesis,  to 
which  I  afterward  adhered,  was  rendered  plausible  by 
my  knowledge  of  New  Mexico,  and  gave  me  the  advan 
tage  of  not  being  deemed  a  partisan.  Secessionists 
and  Unionists  alike,  regarding  me  as  a  stranger  with  no 
particular  sympathies,  conversed  freely.  Aaron  Burr 
asserts  that  "  a  lie  well  stuck  to  is  good  as  the  truth  ;' ' 
in  my  own  case,  it  was  decidedly  better  than  the  truth. 

My  querist  was  a  cattle- drover,  who  spent  most  of 
his  time  in  traveling  through  Alabama,  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana.  He  declared  emphatically  that  the  people  of 
those  States  had  been  placed  in  a  false  position ;  that 
their  hearts  were  loyal  to  the  Union,  in  spite  of  all  the 
arts  which  had  been  used  to  deceive  and  exasperate  them. 

At  Memphis  was  an  old  friend,  whom  I  had  not  met 


1861.]  A  HOT  CLIMATE  FOR  ABOLITIONISTS.  29 

for  many  years,  and  who  was  now  commercial  editor  of 
the  leading  Secession  journal.  I  knew  him  to  be  per 
fectly  trustworthy,  and,  at  heart,  a  "bitter  opponent  of 
Slavery.  On  the  morning  of  my  arrival,  he  called  upon 
me  at  the  Gayoso  House.  After  his  first  cordial  greet 
ing,  he  asked,  abruptly  : 

"  What  are  you  doing  down  here  ?" 

" Corresponding  for  The  Tribune" 

"How  far  are  you  going  ?" 

"  Through  all  the  Gulf  States,  if  possible.'' 

"  My  friend,"  said  he,  in  his  deep  bass  tones,  "do 
you  know  that  you  are  on  very  perilous  business  V 

"Possibly;  but  I  shall  be  extremely  prudent  when 
I  get  into  a  hot  climate." 

"I  do  not  know"  (with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders) 
' '  what  you  call  a  hot  climate.  Last  week,  two  north 
erners,  who  had  been  mobbed  as  Abolitionists,  passed 
through  here,  with  their  heads  shaved,  going  home,  in 
charge  of  the  Adams'  Express.  A  few  days  before,  a 
man  was  hung  on  that  cottonwood  tree  which  you  see 
just  across  the  river,  upon  the  charge  of  tampering  with 
slaves.  Another  person  has  just  been  driven  out  of  the 
city,  on  suspicion  of  writing  a  letter  for  The  Tribune. 
If  the  people  in  this  house,  and  out  on  the  street  in 
front,  knew  you  to  be  one  of  its  correspondents,  they 
would  not  leave  you  many  minutes  for  saying  your 
prayers." 

After  a  long,  minute  conversation,  in  which  my 
friend  learned  my  plans  and  gave  me  some  valuable 
hints,  he  remarked : 

i '  My  first  impulse  was  to  go  down  on  my  knees,  and 
beg  you,  for  God' s  sake,  to  turn  back ;  but  I  rather 
think  you  may  go  on  with  comparative  safety.  You  are 
the  first  man  to  whom  I  have  opened  my  heart  for  years. 


30  AIMS  AND  ANIMUS  OF  SECESSIONISTS.        [i86i. 

I  wish  some  of  my  old  northern  friends,  who  think 
Slavery  a  good  thing,  could  witness  the  scenes  in  the 
slave  auctions,  which  have  so  often  made  my  blood 
run  cold.  I  knew  two  runaway  negroes  absolutely 
starve  themselves  to  death  in  their  hiding-places  in  this 
city,  rather  than  make  themselves  known,  and  be  sent 
back  to  their  masters.  I  disliked  Slavery  before  ;  now 
I  hate  it,  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  my  heart."  His 
compressed  lips  and  clinched  fingers,  driving  their  nails 
into  his  palms,  attested  the  depth  of  his  feeling. 


1861.]  SECESSION  AIMS  AND  GRIEVANCES.  31 


CHAPTER    II. 

Thus  far  into  the  bowels  of  the  land 

Havo  we  marched  on  without  impediment— RICHARD  III. 

WHILE  I  remained  in  Memphis,  my  friend,  who  was 
brought  into  familiar  contact  with  leading  Secessionists, 
gave  me  much  valuable  information.  He  insisted  that 
they  were  in  the  minority,  but  carried  the  day  because 
they  were  noisy  and  aggressive,  overawing  the  Loyalists, 
who  staid  quietly  at  home.  Before  the  recent  city 
election,  every  one  believed  the  Secessionists  in  a  large 
majority;  but,  when  a  Union  meeting  was  called,  the 
people  turned  out  surprisingly,  and,  as  they  saw  the 
old  flag,  gave  cheer  after  cheer,  ' '  with  tears  in  their 
voices."  Many,  intimidated,  staid  away  from  the  polls. 
The  newspapers  of  the  city,  with  a  single  exception, 
were  disloyal,  but  the  Union  ticket  was  elected  by  a 
majority  of  more  than  three  hundred. 

u  Tell  me  exactly  what  the  '  wrongs'  and  '  grievances' 
a?e,  of  which  I  hear  so  much  on  every  side." 

"It  is  difficult  to  answer.  The  masses  have  been 
stirred  into  a  vague,  bitter,  i  soreheaded'  feeling  that  the 
South  is  wronged ;  but  the  leaders  seldom  descend  to 
particulars.  When  they  do,  it  is  very  ludicrous.  They 
urge  the  marvelous  growth  of  the  North  ;  the  abrogation 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  (done  by  southern  votes !), 
and  that  Freedom  has  always  distanced  Slavery  in  the 
territories.  Secession  is  no  new  or  spontaneous  uprising ; 
every  one  of  its  leaders  here  has  talked  of  it  and  planned 
it  for  years.  Individual  ambition,  and  wild  dreams  of  a 


32  SPRING-TIME  IN  MEMPHIS. 

great  southern  empire,  which  shall  include  Mexico,  Cen 
tral  America,  and  Cuba,  seem  to  be  their  leading  incen 
tives.  But  there  is  another,  stronger  still.  You  can 
hardly  imagine  how  bitterly  they  hate  the  Democratic 
Idea — how  they  loathe  the  thought  that  the  vote  of  any 
laboring  man,  with  a  rusty  coat  and  soiled  hands,  may 
neutralize  that  of  a  wealthy,  educated,  slave-owning 
gentleman." 

"  Wonder  why  they  gave  it  such  a  name  of  old  renown, 
This  dreary,  dingy,  muddy,  melancholy  town." 

Thus  Charles  Mackay  describes  Memphis  ;  but  it  im 
pressed  me  as  the  pleasantest  city  of  the  South.  Though 
its  population  was  only  thirty  thousand,  it  had  the  air 
and  promise  of  a  great  metropolis.  The  long  steam 
boat  landing  was  so  completely  covered  with  cotton  that 
drays  and  carriages  could  hardly  thread  the  few  tortuous 
passages  leading  down  to  the  water' s  edge.  Bales  of  the 
same  great  staple  were  piled  up  to  the  ceiling  in  the 
roomy  stores  of  the  cotton  factors;  the  hotels  were 
crowded,  and  spacious  and  elegant  blocks  were  being 
erected. 

A  few  days  earlier,  in  Cleveland,  I  had  seen  the 
ground  covered  with  snow  ;  but  here  I  was  in  the  midst 
of  early  summer.  During  the  first  week  of  March,  the 
heat  was  so  oppressive  that  umbrellas  and  fans  were  in 
general  use  upon  the  streets.  The  broad,  shining  leaves 
of  the  magnolia,  and  the  delicate  foliage  of  the  weeping 
willow,  were  nodding  adieu  to  winter ;  the  air  was 
sweet  with  cherry  blossoms ;  with 

"Daffodils 


That  come  before  the  swallow  dares,  and  take 
The  winds  of  March  with  beauty ;  violets  dim, 
But  sweeter  than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes, 
Or  Cytherea's  breath." 


1861.]       CAPTAIN  MC!NTIRE,  LATE  OF  THE  ARMY.  33 

On  the  evening  of  March  3d  I  left  Memphis.  A 
tliin-visaged,  sandy -haired,  angular  gentleman  in  specta 
cles,  who  occupied  a  car- seat  near  me,  though  of  northern 
birth,  had  resided  in  the  Gulf  States  for  several  years,  as 
agent  for  an  Albany  manufactory  of  cotton-gins  and 
agricultural  implements.  A  broad-shouldered,  roughly 
dressed,  sun-browned  young  man,  whose  chin  was  hid 
den  by  a  small  forest  of  beard,  accepted  the  proffer  of  a 
cigar,  took  a  seat  beside  us,  and  introduced  himself  as 
Captain  Mclntire,  of  the  United  States  Army,  who  had 
just  resigned  his  commission,  on  account  of  the  pending 
troubles,  and  was  returning  from  the  Texian  frontier  to 
his  plantation  in  Mississippi.  He  was  the  first  bitter 
Secessionist  I  had  met,  and  I  listened  with  attent  ear  to 
his  complaints  of  northern  aggression. 

The  Albanian  was  an  advocate  of  Slavery  and  declared 
that,  in  the  event  of  separation,  his  lot  was  with  the 
South,  for  better  or  for  worse  ;  but  he  mildly  urged  that 
the  Secession  movement  was  hasty  and  ill  advised  ;  hoped 
the  difficulty  might  be  settled  by  compromise,  and  de 
clared  that,  traveling  through  all  the  cotton  States  since 
Mr.  Lincoln's  election,  he  had  found,  everywhere  out 
side  the  great  cities,  a  strong  love  for  the  Union  and  a 
universal  hope  that  the  Republic  might  continue  indi 
visible.  He  was  very  "conservative;"  had  always 
voted  the  Democratic  ticket ;  was  confident  the  north 
ern  people  would  not  willingly  wrong  their  southern 
brethren ;  and  insisted  that  not  more  than  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand  persons  in  the  State  of  New- York  were, 
in  any  just  sense,  Abolitionists. 

Captain  Mclntire  silently  heard  him  through,  and 
then  remarked : 

"  You  seem  to  be  a  gentleman  ;  you  may  be  sincere  in 
your  opinions  ;  but  it  won't  do  for  you  to  express  such 

3 


34  AN  AMUSING  COLLOQUY.  [ISGI. 

/ 

sentiments  in  the  State  of  Mississippi.     They  will  involve 
you  in  trouble  and  in  danger !" 

The  New- Yorker  was  swift  to  explain  that  he  was 
very  "sound,"  favoring  no  compromise  which  would 
not  give  the  slaveholders  all  they  asked.  Meanwhile,  a 
taciturn  but  edified  listener,  I  pondered  upon  the  Ger 
man  proverb,  that  "speech  is  silver,  while  silence  is 
golden."  Something  gave  me  a  dim  suspicion  that  our 
violent  fire-eater  was  not  of  southern  birth  ;  and,  after  be 
ing  plied  industriously  with  indirect  questions,  he  was 
reluctantly  forced  to  acknowledge  himself  a  native  of  the 
State  of  New  Jersey.  Soon  after,  at  a  little  station,  Cap 
tain  Mclntire,  late  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  bade 
us  adieu. 

At  Grand  Junction,  after  I  had  assumed  a  recumbent 
position  in  the  sleeping-car,  two  young  women  in  a 
neighboring  seat  fell  into  conversation  with  a  gentleman 
near  them,  when  a  droll  colloquy  ensued.  Learning  that 
he  was  a  New  Orleans  merchant,  one  of  them  asked  : — 

"Do  you  know  Mr.  Powers,  of  New  Orleans  ?" 

"  Powers — Powers,"  said  the  merchant ;  "what  does 
he  do?" 

"  Gambles,"  was  the  cool  response. 

"  Bless  me,  no !  What  do  you  know  about  a 
gambler?" 

"He  is  my  husband,"  replied  the  woman,  with  in 
genuous  promptness. 

"Your  husband  a  gambler!"  ejaculated  the  gentle 
man,  with  horror  in  every  tone. 

"Yes,  sir,"  reiterated  the  undaunted  female;  "and 
gamblers  are  the  best  men  in  the  world." 

"  I  didn't  know  they  ever  married.     I  should  like  to 

a  gambler's  wife." 


1861.]          FEELING  TOWARD  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  35 

"  Well,  sir,  take  a  mighty  good  look,  and  you  can  see 


one  now." 


The  merchant  opened  the  curtains  into  their  compart 
ment,  and  scrutinized  the  speaker — a  young,  rosy,  and 
rather  comely  woman,  with  blue  eyes  and  "brown  hair, 
quietly  arid  tastefully  dressed. 

"  I  should  like  to  know  your  husband,  madam." 

"Well,  sir  ;  if  you've  got  plenty  of  money,  he  will 
be  glad  to  make  your  acquaintance." 

"  Does  he  ever  go  home  ?" 

"Lord  bless  you,  yes!  He  always  comes  home  at 
one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  after  he  gets  through  dealing 
faro.  He  has  not  missed  a  single  night  since  we  were 
married — going  on  five  years.  We  own  a  farm  in  this 
vicinity,  and  if  business  continues  good  with  him  next 
year  we  shall  retire  to  it,  and  never  live  in  the  city 


again." 


All  the  following  day  I  journeyed  through  deep 
forests  of  heavy  drooping  foliage,  with  pendent  tufts 
of  gray  Spanish  moss.  The  beautiful  Cherokee  rose 
everywhere  trailed  its  long  arms  of  vivid  green ;  all 
the  woods  were  decked  with  the  yellow  flowers  of  the 
sassafras  and  the  white  blossoms  of  the  dogwood  and  the 
wild  plum.  Our  road  stretched  out  in  long  perspective 
through  great  Louisiana  everglades,  where  the  grass  was 
four  feet  in  liight  and  the  water  ten  or  twelve  inches  deep. 

It  was  the  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration.  One 
of  our  passengers  remarked  : 

"  I  hope  to  God  he  will  be  killed  before  he  has  time 
to  take  the  oath !" 

Another  said : 

"  I  have  wagered  a  new  hat  that  neither  he  nor  Ham- 
lin  will  ever  live  to  be  inaugurated." 

An  old  Mississippian,  a  working  man,  though  the  owner 


36       WHAT  A  MISSISSIPPI  SLAVEHOLDER  THOUGHT. 

of  a  dozen  slaves,  assured  me  earnestly  that  the  people 
did  not  desire  war ;  "but  the  North  had  cheated  them  in 
every  compromise,  and  they  were  "bound  to  regain  their 
rights,  even  if  they  had  to  fight  for  them. 

"We  of  the  -South,"  said  he,  "are  the  most  inde 
pendent  people  in  the  universe.  We  raise  every  thing 
we  need  ;  "but  the  world  can  not  do  without  cotton.  If 
we  have  war,  it  will  cause  terrible  suffering  in  the 
North.  I  pity  the  ignorant  people  of  the  manufacturing 
districts  there,  who  have  "been  deluded  "by  the  poli 
ticians  ;  for  they  will  be  forced  to  endure  many  hard 
ships,  and  perhaps  starvation.  After  Southern  trade  is 
withdrawn,  manufactures  stopped,  operatives  starving, 
grass  growing  in  the  streets  of  New  York,  and  crowds 
marching  up  Broadway  crying  i  Bread  or  Blood !' 
northern  fanatics  will  see,  too  late,  the  results  of  their 
folly." 

This  was  the  uniform  talk  of  Secessionists.  That 
Cotton  was  not  merely  King,  "but  absolute  despot ;  that 
they  could  coerce  the  North  by  refusing  to  buy  goods, 
and  coerce  the  whole  world  by  refusing  to  sell  cotton, 
was  their  profound  belief.  This  was  always  a  favorite 
southern  theory.  Bancroft  relates  that  as  early  as  1661, 
the  colony  of  Virginia,  suffering  under  commercial 
oppression,  urged  North  Carolina  and  Maryland  to  join 
her  for  a  year  in  refusing  to  raise  tobacco,  that  they 
might  compel  Great  Britain  to  grant  certain  desired 
privileges.  Now  the  Rebels  had  no  suspicion  what 
ever  that  there  was  reciprocity  in  trade  ;  that  they 
needed  to  sell  their  great  staple  just  as  much  as  the 
world  needed  to  buy  it ;  that  the  South  bought  goods 
in  New  York  simply  because  it  was  the  cheapest  and 
best  market ;  that,  were  all  the  cotton-producing  States 
instantly  sunk  in  the  ocean,  in  less  than  five  years  the 


1861.]       WISCONSIN  FREEMEN  vs.  SOUTHERN  SLAVES.        37 

world  would  obtain  their  staple,  or  some  adequate 
substitute,  from  other  sources,  and  forget  they  ever 
existed. 

1  i  I  spent  six  weeks  last  summer, ' '  said  another 
planter,  "in  Wisconsin.  It  is  a  hot-bed  of  Abolition 
ism.  The  working-classes  are  astonishingly  ignorant. 
They  are  honest  and  industrious,  but  they  are  not  so 
intelligent  as  the  nig-roes  of  the  South.  They  sup 
pose,  if  war  comes,  we  shall  have  trouble  with  our 
slaves.  That  is  utterly  absurd.  All  my  nig-roes  would 
fight  for  me." 

A  Mississippian,  whom  his  companions  addressed  as 
"Judge,"  denounced  the  Secession  movement  as  a 
dream  of  noisy  demagogues : 

"Their  whole  policy  has  been  one  of  precipitation. 
They  declared :  '  Let  us  rush  the  State  out  of  the  Union 
while  Buchanan  is  President,  and  there  will  be  no  war.' 
From  the  outset,  they  have  acted  in  defiance  of  the  sober 
will  of  the  masses ;  they  have  not  dared  to  submit  one 
of  their  acts  to  a  popular  vote !" 

Another  passenger,  who  concurred  in  these  views, 
and  intimated  that  he  was  a  Union  man,  still  imputed 
the  troubles  mainly  to  agitation  of  the  Slavery  ques 
tion. 

"The  northern  people,"  said  he,  "have  been  grossly 
deceived  by  their  politicians,  newspapers,  and  books 
like  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  whose  very  first  chapter 
describes  a  slave  imprisoned  and  nearly  starved  to  death 
in  a  cellar  in  New  Orleans,  when  there  is  not  a  single 
cellar  in  the  whole  city  !" 

Midnight  found  us  at  the  St.  Charles  Hotel,  a  five-story 
edifice,  with  granite  basement  and  walls  of  stucco — that 
be-all  and  end-all  of  New  Orleans  architecture.  The 
house  has  an  imposing  Corinthian  portico,  and  in  the 


38  HOSPITALITY  OF  A  STRANGFR.  [ISGI. 

hot  season  its  stone  floors  and  tall  columns  are  cool  and 
inviting  to  the  eye. 

"  You  can  not  fail  to  like  New  Orleans,"  said  a  friend, 
"before  I  left  the  North.  "Its  people  are  much  more 
genial  and  cordial  to  strangers  than  ours."  I  took  no 
letters  of  introduction,  for  introduction  was  just  the 
thing  I  did  not  want.  But  on  the  cars,  before  reaching 
the  city,  I  met  a  gentleman  with  whom  I  had  a  little  con 
versation,  and  exchanged  the  ordinary  civilities  of  trav 
eling.  When  we  parted,  he  handed  me  his  card,  say 
ing : 

"  You  are  a  stranger  in  New  Orleans,  and  may  desire 
some  information  or  assistance.  Call  and  see  me,  and 
command  me,  if  I  can  be  of  service  to  you." 

He  proved  to  be  the  senior  member  of  one  of  the 
heaviest  wholesale  houses  in  the  city.  Accepting  the 
invitation,  I  found  him  in  his  counting-room,  deeply  en 
grossed  in  business  ;  but  he  received  me  with  great  kind 
ness,  and  gave  me  information  about  the  leading  features 
of  the  city  which  I  wished  to  see.  As  I  left,  he  prom 
ised  to  call  on  me,  adding:  "Come  in  often.  By  the 
way,  to-morrow  is  Sunday  ;  why  can't  you  go  home  and 
take  a  quiet  family  dinner  with  me  ?" 

I  was  curious  to  learn  the  social  position  of  one  who 
would  invite  a  stranger,  totally  without  indorsement, 
into  his  home-circle.  The  next  day  he  called,  and  we 
took  a  two- story  car  of  the  Baronne  street  railway.  It 
leads  through  the  Fourth  or  Lafayette  District — more 
like  a  garden  than  a  city — containing  the  most  delightful 
metropolitan  residences  in  America.  Far  back  from  the 
street,  they  are  deeply  unbosomed  in  dense  shrubbery 
and  flowers.  The  tropical  profusion  of  the  foliage  retains 
dampness  and  is  unwholesome,  but  very  delicious  to  the 
senses. 


18GL]  AN  AGREEABLE  FAMILY  CIRCLE.  39 

The  houses  are  low— this  latitude  is  unfavorable  to 
climbing — and  constructed  of  stucco,  cooler  than  wood, 
and  less  damp  than  stone.  They  abound  in  verandas, 
balconies,  and  galleries,  which  give  to  New  Orleans  a 
peculiarly  mellow  and  elastic  look,  much  more  alluring 
than  the  cold,  naked  architecture  of  northern  cities. 

My  new  friend  lived  in  this  district,  as  befits  a  mer 
chant  prince.  His  spacious  grounds  were  rich  in  haw 
thorns,  magnolias,  arbor- vitses,  orange,  olive,  and  fig 
trees,  and  sweet  with  the  breath  of  multitudinous 
flowers.  Though  it  was  only  the  tenth  of  March, 
myriads  of  pinks  and  trailing  roses  were  in  full  bloom  ; 
Japan  plums  hung  ripe,  while  brilliant  oranges  of 
the  previous  year  still  glowed  upon  the  trees.  His 
ample  residence,  with  its  choice  works  of  art,  was 
quietly,  unostentatiously  elegant.  There  was  no  mis 
taking  it  for  one  of  those  gilt  and  gaudy  palaces  which 
seem  to  say:  "Look  at  the  state  in  which  Croesus,  my 
'master,  lives.  Lo,  the  pictures  and  statues,  the  Brussels 
and  rosewood  which  his  money  has  bought !  Behold 
him  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  faring  sumptuously 
every  day !" 

Three  other  guests  were  present,  including  a  young 
officer  of  the  Louisiana  troops  stationed  at  Fort  Pickens, 
and  a  lady  whose  husband  and  brother  held  each  a  high 
commission  in  the  Rebel  forces  of  Texas.  All  assumed 
to  be  Secessionists — as  did  nearly  every  person  I  met  in 
New  Orleans  upon  first  acquaintance — but  displayed 
none  of  the  usual  rancor  and  violence.  In  that  well- 
poised,  agreeable  circle  the  evening  passed  quickly,  and 
at  parting,  the  host  begged  me  to  frequent  his  house. 
This  was  not  distinctively  southern  hospitality,  for  he  was 
born  and  bred  at  the  Noith.  But  in  our  eastern  cities, 
from  a  business  man  in  his  social  position,  it  would  ap- 


40  TRIBUNE  LETTERS. — GENERAL  TWIGGS.          [ISGI. 

pear  a  little  surprising.  Had  lie  been  a  Philadelphian 
or  Bostonian,  would  not  his  friends  have  deemed  him 
a  candidate  for  a  lunatic  asylum  ? 

NEW  ORLEANS,  March  6,  1861. 

Taking  my  customary  stroll  last  evening,  I  sauntered 
into  Canal  street,  and  suddenly  found  myself  in  a  dense 
and  expectant  crowd.  Several  cheers  being  given  upon 
my  arrival,  I  naturally  inferred  that  it  was  an  ovation  to 
The  Tribune  correspondent ;  but  native  modesty,  and  a 
desire  to  blush  unseen,  restrained  me  from  any  oral 
public  acknowledgment. 

Just  then,  an  obliging  by-stander  corrected  my  mis 
apprehension  by  assuring  me  that  the  demonstration  was 
to  welcome  home  General  Daniel  E.  Twiggs — the  gallant 
hero,  you  know,  who,  stationed  in  Texas  to  protect  the 
Government  property,  recently  betrayed  it  all  into  the 
hands  of  the  Rebels,  to  ' '  prevent  bloodshed. ' '  His  friends 
wince  at  the  order  striking  his  name  from  the  army  rolls 
as  a  coward  and  a  traitor,  and  the  universal  execration 
heaped  upon  his  treachery  even  in  the  border  slave 
States. 

They  did  their  best  to  give  him  a  flattering  recep 
tion.  The  great  thoroughfare  was  decked  in  its  holiday 
attire.  Flags  were  flying,  and  up  and  down,  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach,  the  balconies  were  crowded  with  spec 
tators,  and  the  arms  of  long  files  of  soldiers  glittered  in  the 
evening  sunlight.  One  company  bore  a  tattered  and 
stained  banner,  which  went  through  the  Mexican  war. 
Another  carried  richly  ornamented  colors,  presented  by 
the  ladies  of  this  city.  There  were  Pelican  flags,  and 
Lone  Star  flags,  and  devices  unlike  any  tiling  in  the 
heavens  above,  the  earth  beneath,  or  the  waters  under 
the  earth  ;  but  nowhere  could  I  see  the  old  National  ban- 


1861.]      BRAXTON  BRAGG. — MR.  LINCOLN'S  INAUGURAL.    41 

ner.  It  was  well ;  on  sucli  occasion  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
would  be  sadly  out  of  place. 

After  a  welcoming  speech,  pronouncing  him  ' '  not  only 
the  soldier  of  courage,  "but  the  patriot  of  fidelity  and 
honor,''  and  his  own  response,  declaring  that  lierc,  at  least, 
he  would  "  never  be  branded  as  a  coward  and  traitor," 
the  ex-general  rode  through  some  of  the  principal  streets 
in  an  open  barouche,  bareheaded',  bowing  to  the  specta 
tors.  He  is  a  venerable-looking  man,  apparently  of 
seventy.  His  large  head  is  bald  upon  the  top  ;  but  from 
the  sides  a  few  thin  snow-white  locks,  utterly  oblivious 
of  the  virtues  of  "the  Twiggs  Hair  Dye,"*  streamed  in  the 
breeze.  He  was  accompanied  in  the  carriage  by  General 
Braxton  Bragg — the  "  Little-more-grape-Captain-Bragg" 
of  Mexican  war  memory.  By  the  way,  persons  who 
ought  to  know  declare  that  General  Taylor  never  used 
the  expression,  his  actual  language  being  :  ' '  Captain 
Bragg,  give  them  -  —  !" 

President  Lincoln's  Inaugural,  looked  for  with  intense 
interest,  has  just  arrived.  All  the  papers  denounce  it 
bitterly.  The  Delta,  which  has  advocated  Secession 
these  ten  years,  makes  it  a  signal  for  the  war-whoop  :— 

"War  is  a  great  calamity;  but,  with  all  its  horrors,  it  is  a  blessing  to 
the  deep,  dark,  and  damning  infamy  of  such  a  submission,  such  sur 
renders,  as  the  southern  people  are  now  called  upon  to  make  to  a  foreign 

*  In  Mexico,  General  Twiggs,  while  applying  some  preparation  to  a 
wound  in  his  head,  found  it  restoring  his  hair  to  its  natural  color.  An 
enterprising  nostrum-vender  at  once  placed  in  market  and  advertised 
largely  something  which  he  styled  the  "Twiggs  Hair  Dye."  Dr.  Holmes 
makes  the  incident  a  target  for  one  of  his  Parthian  arrows: — 

"  How  many  a  youthful  head  we've  seen  put  on  its  silver  crown ! 
What  sudden  changes  back  again,  to  youth's  empurpled  brown ! 
But  how  to  tell  what's  old  or  young — the  tap-root  from  the  sprigs, 
Since  Florida  revealed  her  fount  to  Ponce  de  Leon  Twiggs?" 


42  LOUISIANA  CONVENTION.  ISGI.J 

invader.  He  who  would  counsel  such — he  who  would  seek  to  dampen, 
discourage,  or  restrain  the  ardor  and  determination  of  the  people  to 
resist  all  such  pretensions,  is  a  traitor,  who  should  be  driven  beyond  our 
borders." 

"  Foreign  invader,"  is  supposed  to  mean  the  President 
of  our  common  country  !  The  "  submission"  denounced 
so  terribly  would  be  simply  the  giving  up  of  the  Gov 
ernment  property  lately  stolen  by  the  Rebels,  and  the 
paying  of  the  usual  duties  on  imports  ! 

March  8. 

The  State  convention  which  lately  voted  Louisiana 
out  of  the  Union,  sits  daily  in  Lyceum  Hall.  The  build 
ing  fronts  Lafayette  Square — one  of  the  admirable  little 
parks  which  are  the  pride  of  New  Orleans.  Upon  the 
first  floor  is  the  largest  public  library  in  the  city, 
though  it  contains  less  than  ten  thousand  volumes. 

In  the  large  hall  above  are  the  assembled  delegates. 
Ex-Governor  Mouton,  their  president,  a  portly  old  gen 
tleman,  of  the  heavy-father  order,  sits  upon  the  platform. 
Below  him,  at  a  long  desk,  Mr.  Wheat,  the  florid  clerk, 
is  reading  a  report  in  a  voice  like  a  cracked  bugle.  Be 
hind  the  president  is  a  life-size  portrait  of  Washington  ; 
at  his  right,  a  likeness  of  Jefferson  Davis,  with  thin, 
beardless  face,  and  sad,  hollow  eyes.  There  is  also  a 
painting  of  the  members,  and  a  copy  of  the  Secession 
ordinance,  with  lithographed  fac  similes  of  their  signa 
tures.  The  delegates,  you  perceive,  have  made  all  the 
preliminary  arrangements  for  being  immortalized.  Phys 
ically,  they  are  fine-looking  men,  with  broad  shoulders, 
deep  chests,  well-proportioned  limbs,  and  stature  de 
cidedly  above  the  northern  standard. 


1861.]  INTRODUCTION  TO  REBEL  CIRCLES.  43 


CHAPTER    III. 

I  will  bo  correspondent  to  command, 
And  do  my  spiriting  gently. — TEMPEST. 

THE  good  fortune  which  in  Memphis  enabled  me  to  learn 
so  directly  the  plans  and  aims  of  the  Secession  leaders,  did 
not  desert  me  in  New  Orleans.  For  several  years  I  had 
been  personally  acquainted  with,  the  editor  of  the  leading 
daily  journal — an  accomplished  writer,  and  an  original 
Secessionist,  Uncertain  whether  he  knew  positively  my 
political  views,  and  fearing  to  arouse  suspicion  "by 
seeming  to  avoid  him,  I  called  on  him  the  day  after 
reaching  the  city. 

He  received  me  kindly,  never  surmising  my  errand  ; 
invited  me  into  the  State  convention,  of  which  he  was  a 
member  ;  asked  me  to  frequent  his  editorial  rooms  ;  and 
introduced  me  at  the  "Louisiana  Democratic  Club," 
which  had  now  ripened  into  a  Secession  club.  Among 
prominent  Rebels  belonging  to  it  were  John  Slidell  and 
Judah  P.  Benjamin,  of  Jewish  descent,  whom  Senator 
Wade  of  Ohio  characterized  so  aptly  as  "  an  Israelite  with 
Egyptian  principles." 

Admission  to  that  club  was  a  final  voucher  for  political 
soundness.  The  plans  of  the  conspirators  could  hardly 
have  been  discussed  with  more  freedom  in  the  parlor  of 
Jefferson  Davis.  Another  friend  introduced  me  at  the 
Merchants'  Reading-room,  where  were  the  same  senti 
ments  and  the  same  frankness.  The  newspaper  office 
also  was  a  standing  Secession  caucus. 

These  associations  gave  me  rare  facilities  for  studying 
the  aims  and  animus  of  the  leading  Revolutionists.  I  was 


44  INTENSITY  OF  THE  SECESSION  FEELING.          [ISGI. 

not  compelled  to  ask  questions,  so  constantly  was  infor 
mation  poured  into  my  ears.  I  used  no  further  deceit 
than  to  acquiesce  quietly  in  the  opinions  everywhere 
heard.  While  I  talked  New  Mexico  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  my  companions  talked  Secession ;  and  told 
me  more,  every  day,  of  its  secret  workings,  than  as  a 
mere  stranger  I  could  have  learned  in  a  month.  Socially, 
they  were  genial  and  agreeable.  Their  hatred  of  New 
England,  which  they  seemed  to  consider  "  the  cruel  cause 
of  all  our  woes, ' '  was  very  intense.  They  were  also  wont 
to  denounce  TJie  Tribune^  and  sometimes  its  unknown 
Southern  correspondents,  with  peculiar  "bitterness.  At 
first  their  maledictions  fell  with  startling  and  unpleasant 
force  upon  my  ears,  though  I  always  concurred.  But 
in  time  I  learned  to  hear  them  not  only  with  serenity, 
"but  with  a  certain  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  ludicrousness 
of  the  situation. 

I  had  not  a  single  acquaintance  in  the  city,  whom  I 
knew  to  "be  a. Union  man,  or  to  whom  I  could  talk  with 
out  reserve.  This  was  very  irksome — at  times  almost 
unbearable.  How  I  longed  to  open  my  heart  to  some 
body  !  Recently  as  I  had  left  the  North,  and  strongly 
as  I  was  anchored  in  my  own  convictions,  the  pressure 
on  every  hand  was  so  great,  all  intelligence  came  so 
distorted  through  Rebel  mediums,  that  at  times  I  was 
nearly  swept  from  my  moorings.  I  could  fully  under 
stand  how  many  strong  Union  men  had  at  last  been  drawn 
into  the  almost  irresistible  tide.  It  was  an  inexpressible 
relief  to  read  the  northern  newspapers  at  the  Democratic 
Club.  There,  even  The  Tribune  was  on  file.  The  club 
was  so  far  above  suspicion  that  it  might  have  patronized 
with  impunity  the  organ  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  or 
Frederick  Douglass. 

The  vituperation  which  the  southern  journals  heaped 


18GL]      REBEL  NEWSPAPERS  AND  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.       45 

upon  Abraham  Lincoln  was  something  marvelous.  The 
speeches  of  the  newly  elected  President  on  his  way  to 
Washington,  were  somewhat  rugged  and  uncouth ;  not 
equal  to  the  reputation  he  won  in  the  great  senatorial 
canvass  with  Douglas,  where  debate  and  opposition 
developed  his  peculiar  powers  and  stimulated  his  un 
rivaled  logic.  The  Rebel  papers  drew  daily  contrasts 
between  the  two  Presidents,  pronouncing  Mr.  Davis  a 
gentleman,  scholar,  statesman ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  a  vul 
garian,  buffoon,  demagogue.  One  of  their  favorite 
epithets  was  " idiot;"  another,  "baboon;"  just  as  the 
Roman  satirists,  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  wont  to 
ridicule  the  great  Julian  as  an  ape  and  a  hairy  savage. 

The  times  have  changed.  While  I  write  some  of  the 
same  journals,  not  yet  extinguished  by  the  fortunes  of 
war,  denounce  Jefferson  Davis  with  equal  coarseness 
and  bitterness,  as  an  elegant,  vacillating  sentimentalist ; 
and  mourn  that  he  does  not  possess  the  rugged  common 
sense  and  indomitable  perseverance  displayed  by  Abra 
ham  Lincoln ! 

While  keeping  up  appearances  on  the  Mexican  ques 
tion,  by  frequent  inquiries  about  the  semi-monthly 
steamers  for  Yera  Cruz,  I  devoted  myself  ostensibly 
to  the  curious  features  of  the  city.  Odd  enough  it 
sounded  to  hear  persons  say,  "  Let  us  go  up  to  the 
river  ;' '  but  the  phrase  is  accurate.  New  Orleans  is  two 
feet  lower  than  the  Mississippi,  and  protected  against 
overflow  by  a  dike  or  levee.  The  city  is  quite  narrow, 
and  is  drained  into  a  great  swamp  in  the  rear.  In  front, 
new  deposits'  of  soil  are  constantly  and  rapidly  made. 
Four  of  the  leading  business  streets,  nearest  the  levee, 
traverse  what,  a  few  years  ago,  was  the  bed  of  the  river. 
Anywhere,  by  digging  two  feet  below  the  surface,  one 
comes  to  water. 


46  CEMETERIES  ABOVE  THE  GROUND.  [ISGI. 

The  earth  is  peculiarly  spongy  and  yielding.  The 
unfinished  Custom  House,  built  of  granite  from  Quincy, 
Massachusetts,  has  sunk  about  two  feet  since  its  com 
mencement,  in  1846.  The  same  is  true  of  other  heavy 
buildings.  Cellars  and  wells  being  impossible  in  the 
watery  soil,  refrigerators  serve  for  the  one,  and  cylin 
drical  upright  wooden  cisterns,  standing  aboveground, 
like  towers,  for  the  other. 

In  the  cemeteries  the  tombs  are  called  "ovens." 
They  are  all  built  aboveground,  of  brick,  stone,  or 
stucco,  closed  up  with  mortar  and  cement.  Sometimes 
the  walls  crack  open,  revealing  the  secrets  of  the  char 
nel-house.  Decaying  coffins  are  visible  within ;  and 
once  I  saw  a  human  skull  protruding  from  the  fissure 
of  a  tomb.  Here,  indeed, 

(*  Imperial  Cccsar,  dead,  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away." 

Despite  this  revolting  feature,  the  Catholic  cemeteries 
are  especially  interesting  About  the  humblest  of  the 
monuments,  artificial  wreaths,  well-tended  rose-beds,  gar 
lands  of  fresh  flowers,  changed  daily,  and  vases  inserted 
in  the  walls,  to  catch  water  and  attract  the  birds,  evince 
a  tender,  unforgetful  attention  to  the  resting-place  of 
departed  friends.  More  than  half  the  inscriptions  are 
French  or  Spanish.  Very  few  make  any  allusion  to  a 
future  life.  One  imposing  column  marks  the  grave  of 
Dominique  You,  the  pirate,  whose  single  virtue  of  patri 
otism,  exhibited  under  Jackson  during  the  war  of  1815, 
hardly  justifies,  upon  his  monument,  the  magnificent 
eulogy  of  Bayard:  "The  hero  of  a  hundred  battles, 
—a  chevalier  without  fear  and  without  reproach." 

In  New  Orleans,  grass  growing  upon  the  streets  is  no 
mgn  of  decadence.  Stimulated  by  the  rich,  moist  soil,  it 


i86i.]          THE  FRENCH  QUARTER  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.        47 

springs  up  in  profusion,  not  only  in  the  smaller  thorough 
fares,  but  among  the  "bricks  and  paving- stones  of  the 
leading  business  avenues. 

Canal  street  is  perhaps  the  finest  promenade  on  the 
continent.  It  is  twice  the  width  of  Broadway,  and  in 
the  middle  has  two  lines  of  trees,  with  a  narrow  lawn 
between  them,  extending  its  entire  length.  At  night, 
as  the  long  parallel  rows  of  gas-lights  glimmer  through 
the  quivering  foliage,  growing  narrower  and  narrower  in 
perspective  till  they  unite  and  blend  into  one,  it  is  a 
striking  spectacle — a  gorgeous  feast  of  the  lanterns.  On 
the  lower  side  of  it  is  the  "French  Quarter,"  more  un- 
American  even  than  the  famous  German  portion  of  Cincin 
nati  known  as  "  Over  the  Khine."  Here  you  may  stroll 
for  hours,  ' '  a  straggler  from  another  civilization, ' '  hearing 
no  word  in  your  native  tongue,  seeing  no  object  to 
remove  the  impression  of  an  ancient  French  city.  The 
dingy  houses,  " familiar  with  forgotten  years,"  call  up 
memories  of  old  Mexican  towns.  They  are  grim,  dusky 
relics  of  antiquity,  usually  but  one  story  high,  with  steep 
projecting  roofs,  tiled  or  slated,  wooden  shutters  over  the 
doors,  and  multitudinous  eruptions  of  queer  old  gables 
and  dormer  windows. 

New  Orleans  is  the  most  Parisian  of  American  cities. 
Opera-houses,  theaters,  and  all  other  places  of  amusement 
are  open  on  Sunday  nights.  The  great  French  market 
wears  its  crowning  glory  only  on  Sunday  mornings. 
Then  the  venders  occupy  not  only  several  spacious 
buildings,  but  adjacent  streets  and  squares.  Their  wares 
seem  boundless  in  variety.  Any  thing  you  please — 
edible,  drinkable,  wearable,  ornamental,  or  serviceable 
— from  Wenham  ice  to  vernal  flowers  and  tropical  fruits 
— from  Indian  moccasins  to  a  silk  dress-pattern — from 


48  FRENCH  MARKET  ON  SUNDAY  MORNING. 

ancient  Chinese  "books  to  the  freshest  morning  papers — 
ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you. 

Sit  down  in  a  stall,  over  your  tiny  cup  of  excellent 
coifee,  and  you  are  hobnobbing  with  the  antipodes — your 
next  neighbor  may  be  from  Greenland' s  icy  mountains, 
or  India' s  coral  strand.  Get  up  to  resume  your  prome 
nade,  and  you  hear  a  dozen  languages  in  as  many  steps  ; 
while  every  nation,  and  tribe,  and  people — French, 
English,  Irish,  German,  Spanish,  Creole,  Chinese,  Afri 
can,  Quadroon,  Mulatto,  American— jostles  you  in  good- 
humored  confusion. 

Some  gigantic  negresses,  with  gaudy  kerchiefs,  like 
turbans,  about  their  heads,  are  selling  fruits,  and  sit 
erect  as  palm-trees.  They  look  like  African  or  Indian 
princesses,  a  little  annoyed  at  being  separated  from  their 
thrones  and  retinues,  but  none  the  less  regal  "for  a'  that." 
At  every  turn  little  girls,  with  rich  Creole  complexions  and 
brilliant  eyes,  offer  you  aromatic  bouquets  of  pinks,  roses, 
verbenas,  orange  and  olive  blossoms,  and  other  flowers 
to  you  unknown,  unless,  being  a  woman,  you  are  a 
botanist  by  "  gift  of  fortune,"  or,  a  man,  that  science  has 
1 '  come  by  nature. ' ' 

Upon  Jackson  Square,  a  delicious  bit  of  verdure 
fronting  the  river,  gloom  antique  public  buildings,  which 
were  the  seat  of  government  in  the  days  of  the  old 
Spanish  regime.  Near  them  stands  the  equally  ancient 
cathedral,  richly  decorated  within,  where  devout  Catho 
lics  still  worship.  Its  great  congregations  are  mosaics 
of  all  hues  and  nationalities,  mingling  for  the  moment  in 
the  democratic  equality  of  the  Roman  Church. 

Attending  service  in  the  cathedral  one  Sunday  morn 
ing,  I  found  the  aisles  crowded  with  volunteers  who,  on 
the  eve  of  departure  for  the  debatable  ground  of  Fort 
Pickens,  had  assembled  to  witness  the  consecration  of 


1861.]  PRESSING  COTTON  BY  MACHINERY.  49 

their  Secession  flag,  a  ceremonial  conducted  with  great 
pomp  and  solemnity  Iby  the  French  priests. 

In  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Palmer,  a  divine  of  talent  and  local  reputation,  might 
be  heard  advocating  the  extremest  Rebel  views.  The 
southerners  had  formerly  been  very  bitter  in  their  de 
nunciation  of  political  preaching  ;  but  now  the  pulpit,  as 
usual,  made  obeisance  to  the  pews,  and  the  pews  beamed 
encouragement  on  the  pulpit. 

If  I  may  go  abruptly  from  church  to  cotton — and 
they  were  not  far  apart  in  New  Orleans — a  visit  to  one  of 
the  great  cotton-presses  was  worthy  of  note.  It  is  a  low 
building,  occupying  an  entire  square,  with  a  hollow  court 
in  the  center.  It  was  filled  with  heaped-up  cotton-bales, 
which  overran  their  limits  and  covered  the  adjacent  side 
walks.  Negroes  stood  all  day  at  the  doors  receiving  and 
discharging  cotton.  The  bales  are  compressed  by  heavy 
machinery,  driven  by  steam,  that  they  may  occupy  the 
least  space  in  shipping.  They  are  first  condensed  on  the 
plantations  by  screw-presses  ;  the  cotton  is  compact  upon 
arrival  here ;  but  this  great  iron  machine,  which  em 
braces  the  bales  in  a  hug  of  two  hundred  tons,  diminishes 
them  one-third  more.  The  laborers  are  negroes  and 
Frenchmen,  who  chant  a  strange,  mournful  refrain  in 
time  with  their  movements. 

The  ropes  of  a  bale  are  cut ;  it  is  thrown  under  the 
press ;  the  great  iron  jaws  of  the  monster  close  convul 
sively,  rolling  it  under  the  tongue  as  a  sweet  morsel. 
The  ropes  are  tightened  and  again  tied,  the  cover  stitched 
up,  and  the  bale  rolled  out  to  make  room  for  another — 
all  in  about  fifty  seconds.  It  weighs  five  hundred 
pounds,  but  the  workmen  sieze  it  on  all  sides  with 
their  iron  hooks,  and  toss  it  about  like  a  schoolboy's 
ball.  The  superintendent  informed  me  that  they  pressed, 


50       THE  BARRACKS. — THE  NEW  ORLEANS  LEVEE.      [ISGI. 

during  the  previous  winter,  more  than  forty  thousand 
"bales. 

The  Rebels,  with  their  early  penchant  for  capturing 
empty  forts  and  full  treasuries,  had  seized  the  United 
States  Branch  Mint,  containing  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  National  "barracks,  garrisoned  at  the 
time  by  a  single  sergeant.  Visiting,  with  a  party  of  gen 
tleman,  the  historic  Jackson  battle-ground,  four  miles 
below  the  city,  I  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  tall,  gloomy 
Mint,  and  spent  an  hour  in  the  long,  low,  white,  deep- 
balconied  barracks  beside  the  river. 

The  Lone  Star  flag  of  Louisiana  was  flying  from  the 
staff.  A  hundred  and  twenty  freshly  enlisted  men  of 
the  State  troops  composed  the  garrison.  Three  of  the 
officers,  recent  seceders  from  the  Federal  army,  invited 
us  into  their  quarters,  to  discuss  political  affairs  over 
their  Bourbon  and  cigars.  As  all  present  assumed  to  be 
sanguine  and  uncompromising  Rebels,  the  conversation 
was  one-sided  and  uninteresting. 

We  drove  down  the  river-bank  along  the  almost  end 
less  rows  of  ships  and  steamboats.  The  commerce  of  New 
Orleans,  was  more  imposing  than  that  of  any  other  Amer 
ican  city  except  New  York.  It  seemed  to  warrant  the 
picture  painted  by  the  unrivaled  orator,  Prentiss,  of 
the  future  years,  "when  this  Crescent  City  shall  have 
filled  her  golden  horn."  The  long  landing  was  now 
covered  with  western  produce,  cotton,  and  sugar,  and 
fenced  with  the  masts  of  hundreds  of  vessels.  Some  dis 
played  the  three-striped  and  seven-starred  flag  of  the 
4 'Southern  Confederacy,"  many  the  ensigns  of  foreign 
nations,  and  a  few  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

We  were  soon  among  the  old  houses  of  the  Creoles.* 

*  Creole  means  "native;"  but  its  New  Orleans  application  is  only  to 
persons  of  French  or  Spanish  descent. 


1861.]  VISIT    TO    THE    JACKSON    BATTLE-GllOUND.  51 

These  anomalous  people — a  very  large  element  of  the 
population — properly  belong  to  a  past  age  or  another 
land,  and  find  themselves  sadly  at  variance  with  Amer 
ica  in  the  nineteenth  century.  They  seldom  improve  or 
sell  their  property  ;  permit  the  old  fences  and  palings  to 
remain  around  their  antique  houses  ;  are  content  to  live 
upon  small  incomes,  and  rarely  enter  the  modern  dis 
tricts.  It  is 'even  asserted  that  old  men  among  them 
have  spent  their  whole  lives  in  New  Orleans  without 
ever  going  above  Canal  street!  Many  have  visited 
Paris,  but  are  profoundly  ignorant  of  Washington,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  other  northern  cities.  They 
are  devout  Catholics,  sudden  and  quick  in  quarrel,  and 
duelling  continues  one  of  their  favorite  recreations. 

We  stopped  at  the  old  Spanish  house — deeply  em 
bowered  in  trees — occupied  as  head-quarters  by  General 
Jackson,  and  saw  the  upper  window  from  which, 
glass  in  hand,  he  witnessed  the  approach  of  the  enemy. 
The  dwelling  is  inhabited,  and  bears  marks  of  the  cannon- 
balls  fired  to  dislodge  him.  Like  his  city  quarters— a 
plain  brick  edifice,  at  one  hundred  and  six,  Royal- street, 
New  Orleans — it  is  unchanged  in  appearance  since  that 
historic  Eighth  of  January. 

A  few  hundred  yards  from  the  river,  we  reached  the 
battle-ground  where,  in  1815,  four  thousand  motley, 
undisciplined,  half-armed  recruits  defeated  twelve 
thousand  veterans — the  Americans  losing  but  five 
men,  the  British  seven  hundred.  This  enormous  dis 
parity  is  explained  by  the  sheltered  position  of  one  party 
behind  a  breastwork,  and  the  terrible  exposure  of  the 
other  in  its  march,  by  solid  columns,  of  half  a  mile  over 
an  open  field,  without  protection  of  hillock  or  tree.  A 
horrible  field,  whence  the  Great  Reaper  gathered  a 
bloody  harvest! 


52  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  BATTLE.  [ISGI. 

The  swamp  here  is  a  mile  from  the  river.  Jackson 
dug  A  canal  between  them,  throwing  up  the  earth  on 
one  side  for  a  breastwork,  and  turning  a  stream  of  water 
from  the  Mississippi  through  the  trench.  The  British 
had  an  extravagant  fear  of  the  swamp,  and  believed  that, 
attempting  to  penetrate  it,  they  would  be  ingulfed  in 
treacherous  depths.  So  they  marched  up,  with  un 
flinching  Saxon  courage,  in  the  teeth  of  that  terrible  .fire 
from  the  Americans,  ranged  four  deep,  behind  the  fortifi 
cation  ;  and  the  affair  became  a  massacre  rather  than  a 
battle. 

The  spongy  soil  of  the  breastwork  (the  tradition  that 
bales  of  cotton  were  used  is  a  fiction)  absorbed  the 
balls  without  any  damage.  It  first  proved  what  has 
since  been  abundantly  demonstrated  in  the  Crimean 
war,  and  the  American  Rebellion — the  superiority  of 
earthworks  over  brick  and  stone.  The  most  solid 
masonry  will  be  broken  and  battered  down  sooner  or 
later,  but  shells  and  solid  shot  can  do  little  harm  to 
earthworks. 

Jackson's  army  was  a  reproduction  of  FalstafTs 
ragamuffins.  It  was  made  up  of  Kentucky  backwoods 
men,  New  Orleans  clergymen,  lawyers,  merchants  and 
clerks ;  pirates  and  ruffians  just  released  from  the  cala 
boose  to  aid  in  the  defense ;  many  negroes,  free  and 
slave,  with  a  liberal  infusion  of  nondescript  city  vaga 
bonds,  noticeable  chiefly  for  their  tatters,  and  seeming, 
from  their  "  looped  and  windowed  raggedness,"  to  hang 
out  perpetual  flags  of  truce  to  the  enemy. 

Judah  Trouro,  a  leading  merchant,  while  carrying 
ammunition,  was  struck  in  the  rear  by  a  cannon-ball, 
which  cut  and  bore  away  a  large  slice  of  his  body  ;  but, 
in  spite  of  the  awkward  loss,  he  lived  many  years,  to 
leave  an  enviable  memory  for  philanthropy  and  public 


1861.]         A  PECULIAR  FREE  NEGRO  POPULATION.          53 

spirit.  Parton  tells  of  a  young  American  who,  during 
the  battle,  stooped  forward  to  light  a  cigar ;  and  when 
he  recovered  his  position  saw  that  a  man  exactly  "behind 
him  was  blown  to  pieces,  and  his  brains  scattered  over 
the  parapet,  by  an  exploding  shell. 

More  than  half  of  Jackson' s  command  was  composed 
of  negroes,  who  were  principally  employed  with  the 
spade,  but  several  battalions  of  them  were  armed,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  whole  army  received  the  thanks  of 
General  Jackson  for  their  gallantry.  On  each  anniver 
sary  the  negro  survivors  of  the  battle  always  turned  out 
in  large  numbers — so  large,  indeed,  as  to  excite  the 
suspicion  that  they  were  not  genuine. 

The  free  colored  population,  at  the  time  of  my  visit, 
was  a  very  peculiar  feature  of  New  Orleans.  Its  mem 
bers  were  chiefly  of  San  Domingo  origin ;  held  themselves 
altogether  aloof  from  the  other  blacks,  owned  numer 
ous  slaves,  and  were  the  most  rigorous  of  masters.  Fre 
quently  their  daughters  were  educate^  in  Paris,  married 
whites,  and  in  some  cases  the  traces  of  their  negro  origin 
were  almost  entirely  obliterated.  This,  however,  is  not 
peculiar  to  that  class.  It  is  very  unusual  anywhere  in 
the  South  to  find  persons  of  pure  African  lineage.  A 
tinge  of  white  blood  is  almost  always  detected. 

Our  company  had  an  invaluable  cicerone  in  the  per 
son  of  Judge  Alexander  Walker,  author  of  "Jackson 
and  New  Orleans,"  the  most  clear  and  entertaining  work 
ivpon  the  battle,  its  causes  and  results,  yet  contributed  to 
American  history.  He  had  toiled  unweariedly  through 
all  the  official  records,  and  often  visited  the  ground  with 
men  who  participated  in  the  engagement.  He  pointed 
out  positions,  indicated  the  spot  where  Packenham  fell, 
and  drew  largely  upon  his  rich  fund  of  anecdote,  tra 
dition,  and  biography. 


54          ALL  ABOUT  A  "  BLACK  REPUBLICAN  FLAG."     ISGL] 

A  plain,  unfinished  shaft  of  Missouri  limestone,  upon 
a  rough  brick  foundation,  now  marks  the  battle-field.  It 
was  commenced  by  a  legislative  appropriation  ;  but  the 
fund  became  exhausted  and  the  work  ceased.  The  level 
cotton  plantation,  ditched  for  draining,  now  shows  no 
evidence  of  the  conflict,  except  the  still  traceable  line  of 
the  old  canal,  with  detached  pools  of  stagnant  water  in  a 
fringe  of  reeds,  willows,  and  live  oaks. 

A  negro  patriarch,  with  silvery  hair,  and  legs  infirm 
of  purpose,  hobbled  up,  to  exhibit  some  balls  collected 
on  the  ground.  The  bullets,  which  were  flattened,  he 
assured  us,  had  "hit  somebody."  No  doubt  they  were 
spurious ;  but  we  purchased  a  few  buckshots  and 
fragments  of  shell  from  the  ancient  Ethiop,  and  rode 
back  to  the  city  along  avenues  lined  with  flowers  and 
shrubbery.  Here  grew  the  palm — the  characteristic 
tree  of  the  South.  It  is  neither  graceful  nor  beautiful ; 
but  looks  like  an  inverted  umbrella  upon  a  long,  slender 
staff.  Ordinary  pictures  very  faithfully  represent  it. 

NEW   ORLEANS,  March  11,  1861. 

We  are  a  good  deal  exercised,  just  now,  about  a  new 
grievance.  The  papers  charged,  a  day  or  two  since,  that 
the  ship  Adelaide  Bell,  from  "New  Hampshire,  had  flung 
defiant  to  the  breeze  a  Black  Eepublican  flag,  and  that 
her  captain  vowed  he  would  shoot  anybody  attempting 
to  cut  it  down.  As  one  of  the  journals  remarked,  "his 
audacity  was  outrageous."  En  passant,  do  you  know 
what  a  Black  Eepublican  flag  is  ?  I  have  never  encoun 
tered  that  mythical  entity  in  my  travels  ;  but  'tis  a  fear 
ful  thing  to  think  of— is  it  not  ? 

The  reporter  of  The  Crescent,  with  charming  in 
genuousness,  describes  it  as  "  so  much  like  the  flag  of 
the  late  United  States,  that  few  would  notice  the  diifer- 


[1861.  VlCE-PllESIDENT    IlAMLIN   A   MULATTO.  55 

ence."  In  fact,  lie  adds,  it  is  the  old  Stars  and  Stripes, 
with  a  red  stripe  instead  of  a  white  one  immediately 
below  the  union.  Of  course,  we  are  greatly  incensed. 
It  is  flat  burglary,  you  know,  to  love  the  Star  Spangled 
Banner  itself ;  and  as  for  a  Black  Republican  flag — why, 
that  is  most  tolerable  and  not  to  be  endured. 

Captain  Robertson,  the  "audacious,"  has  been  com 
pelled,  publicly,  to  deny  the  imputation.  He  asserts 
that,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  he  has  been  using  it 
for  years  as  a  United  States  flag.  But  the  newspapers 
adhere  stoutly  to  the  charge  ;  so  the  presumption  is  that 
the  captain  is  playing  some  infernal  Yankee  trick.  Who 
shall  deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this  Black  Republican 
flag? 

If  it  were  possible,  I  would  like  to  see  the  "  Southern 
Confederacy"  work  out  its  own  destiny;  to  see  how 
Slavery  would  flourish,  isolated  from  free  States;  how 
the  securities  of  a  government,  founded  on  the  right  of 
any  of  its  members  to  break  it  up  at  pleasure,  would 
stand  in  the  markets  of  the  world ;  how  the  principle  of 
Democracy  would  sustain  itself  in  a  confederation  whose 
corner-stones  are  aristocracy,  oligarchy,  despotism.  This 
is  the  government  which,  in  the  language  of  one  of  its 
admirers,  shall  be  "  stronger  than  the  bonds  of  Orion,  and 
benigner  than  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades." 

A  few  days  since,  I  was  in  a  circle  of  southern  ladies, 
When  one  of  them  remarked  : 

"  I  am  glad  Lincoln  has  not  been  killed." 

"Why  so?"  asked  another. 

"Because,  if  he  had  been,  Hamlin  would  become 
President,  and  it  would  be  a  shame  to  have  a  mulatto  at 
the  head  of  the  Government." 

A  little  discussion  which  followed  developed  that 
every  lady  present,  except  one,  believed  Mr.  Hamlin  a 


56  NORTHERNERS  LIVING  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

mulatto.  Yet  the  company  was  comparatively  intelli 
gent,  and  all  its  members  live  in  a  flourishing  com 
mercial  metropolis.  You  may  infer  something  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  North  in  rural  districts,  enlightened 
only  "by  weekly  visits  from  Secession  newspapers  ! 

We  are  enjoying  that  soft  air  "  which  comes  caress 
ing]  y  to  the  brow,  and  produces  in  the  lungs  a  luxurious 
delight."  I* notice,  on  the  streets,  more  than  one  pre 
monition  of  summer,  in  the  form  of  linen  coats.  The 
yards  and  cemeteries,  smiling  with  myriads  of  roses  and 
pinks,  are  carpeted  with  velvet  grass ;  the  morning  air 
is  redolent  of  orange  and  clover  blossoms,  and  nosegays 
abound,  sweet  with  the  breath  of  the  tropics. 

March  15. 

Men  of  northern  nativity  are  numerous  throughout 
the  Gulf  States.  Many  are  leading  merchants  of  the 
cities,  and  a  few,  planters  in  the  interior.  Some  have 
gone  north  to  stay  until  the  storm  is  over.  A  part  of 
those  who  remain  out-Herod  the  native  fire-eaters  in 
zeal  for  Secession.  Their  violence  is  suspicious ;  it 
oversteps  the  modesty  of  nature.  I  was  recently  in  a 
mixed  company,  where  one  person  was  conspicuously 
bitter  upon  the  border  slave  States,  denouncing  them 
as  "playing  second  fiddle  to  the  Abolitionists,"  and 
"  traitors  to  southern  rights." 

"  Who  is  he?"  I  asked  of  a  southern  gentleman  be 
side  me. 

"He?"  was  the  indignant  reply;  "why,  he  is  a 
northerner,  -  -  him  !  He  is  talking  all  this  for  effect. 
What  does  he  care  about  our  rights?  He  don't  own 
slaves,  and  wasn't  raised  in  the  South ;  if  it  were 
fashionable,  he  would  be  an  Abolitionist.  I'd  as  soon 
trust  a  nigger-stealer  as  such  a  man !" 


i86i.]    PREPARING  AND  TRANSMITTING  CORRESPONDENCE.    57 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Tis  my  vocation,  Hal ;  His  no  sin  for  a  man  to  labor  in  his  vocation.— KINO  HENRY  IV. 

THE  city  was  measurably  quiet,  "but  arrests,  and 
examinations  of  suspected  Abolitionists,  were  frequent. 
In  general,  I  felt  little  personal  disquietude,  except  the 
fear  of  encountering  some  one  who  knew  my  ante 
cedents  ;  but  about  once  a  week  something  transpired 
to  make  me  thoroughly  uncomfortable  for  the  moment. 

I  attended  daily  the  Louisiana  Convention,  sitting 
among  the  spectators.  I  could  take  no  notes,  but  relied 
altogether  upon  memory.  In  corresponding,  I  endeavored 
to  cover  my  tracks  as  far  as  possible.  Before  leaving 
Cincinnati,  I  had  encountered  a  friend  just  from  New 
Orleans,  and  induced  him  to  write  for  me  one  or  two 
letters,  dated  in  the  latter  city.  They  were  copied,  with 
some  changes  of  style,  and  published.  Hence  investiga 
tion  would  have  shown  that  The  Tribune  writer  began 
two  or  three  weeks  before  I  reached  the  city,  and  thrown 
a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  identifying  him. 

My  dispatches,  transmitted  sometimes  by  mail,  some 
times  by  express,  were  addressed  alternately  to  half  a 
dozen  banking  and  commercial  firms  in  New  York,  who 
at  once  forwarded  them  to  The  Tribune  editorial  rooms. 
They  were  written  like  ordinary  business  letters,  treating 
of  trade  and  monetary  affairs,  and  containing  drafts  upon 
supposititious  persons,  quite  princely  in  amount.  I  never 
learned,  however,  that  they  appreciably  enlarged  the 


58  GUARDING  LETTERS  AGAINST  SCRUTINY.       [ISGI. 

exchequer  of  tlieir  recipients.  Indeed,  they  were  a  good 
deal  like  the  voluminous  epistles  which  Mr.  Toots,  in 
his  school-boy  days,  was  in  the  habit  of  writing  to  him 
self. 

I  used  a  system  of  cipher,  by  which  all  phrases  be 
tween  certain  private  marks  were  to  be  exactly  re 
versed  in  printing.  Thus,  if  I  characterized  any  one  as 
"  patriot  and  an  honest  man,"  inclosing  the  sentence  in 
brackets,  it  was  to  be  rendered  a  4  {  demagogue  and  a 
scoundrel."  All  matter  between  certain  other  marks 
was  to  be  omitted.  If  a  paragraph  commenced  at  the 
very  edge  of  a  sheet,  it  was  to  be  printed  precisely  as 
it  stood.  But  beginning  it  half  across  the  page  indi 
cated  that  it  contained  something  to  be  translated  by 
the  cipher. 

The  letters,  therefore,  even  if  examined,  would  hardly 
be  comprehended.  Whether  tampered  with  or  not,  they 
always  reached  the  office.  J  never  kept  any  papers  on 
my  person,  or  in  my  room,  which  could  excite  suspicion, 
if  read. 

In  writing,  I  assumed  the  tone  of  an  old  citizen,  some 
times  remarking  that  during  a  residence  of  fourteen  years 
in  New  Orleans,  I  had  never  before  seen  such  a  whirl 
wind  of  passion,  etc.  In  recording  incidents  I  was  often 
compelled  to  change  names,  places,  and  dates,  though 
always  faithful  to  the  fact.  Toward  the  close  of  my 
stay,  the  correspondence  appearing  to  pass  unopened,  I 
gave  minute  and  exact  details,  designing  to  be  in  the 
North  before  the  letters  could  return  in  print. 

Two  incidents  will  illustrate  the  condition  of  affairs 
better  than  any  general  description.  Soon  after  Mr. 
Lincoln' s  election,  a  Philadelphian  reached  New  Orleans, 
on  a  collecting  tour.  One  evening  he  was  standing  in 
the  counting-room  of  a  merchant,  who  asked  him  : — 


1861.]      A  PHILADELPHIAN  AMONG  THE  REBELS.  59 

"Well,  now  you  Black  Republicans  have  elected 
your  President,  what  are  you  going  to  do  next?" 

"We  will  show  you,"  was  the  laughing  response. 

Both  spoke  in  jest ;  Ibut  the  bookkeeper  of  the 
house,  standing  by,  with  his  back  turned,  belonged 
to  the  Minute  Men,  who,  that  very  evening,  by  a  dele 
gation  of  fifty,  waited  on  the  Philadelphian  at  the  St. 
James  Hotel.  They  began  by  demanding  whether  he 
was  a  Black  Republican.  He  at  once  surmised  that  he 
was  obtaining  a  glimpse  of  the  hydra  of  Secession,  be 
side  which  the  armed  rhinoceros  were  an  agreeable  com 
panion,  and  the  rugged  Russian  bear  a  pleasant  house 
hold  pet.  His  face  grew  pallid,  but  he  replied,  with 
dignity  and  firmness : 

"I  deny  your  right  to  ask  me  any  such  questions." 

The  inquisitors,  who  were  of  good  social  position  and 
gentlemanly  manners,  claimed  that  the  public  emer 
gency  was  so  great  as  to  justify  them  in  examining  all 
strangers  who  excited  suspicion ;  and  that  he  left  them 
only  the  alternative  of  concluding  him  an  Abolitionist 
and  an  incendiary.  At  last  he  informed  them  truthfully 
that  he  had  never  sympathized  with  the  Anti- Slavery 
party,  and  had  always  voted  the  Democratic  ticket. 
They  next  inquired  if  the  house  which  employed  him 
was  Black  Republican. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  replied,  "it  is  &  business  firm,  not 
a  political  one.  I  never  heard  politics  mentioned  by 
either  of  the  partners.  I  don't  know  whether  they  are 
Republicans  or  Democrats." 

He  cheerfully  permitted  his  baggage  to  be  searched 
by  the  Minute  Men,  who,  finding  nothing  objectionable, 
bade  him  good-evening.  But,  just  after  they  left,  a 
mob  of  Roughs,  attracted  by  the  report  that  an  Abo 
litionist  was  stopping  there,  entered  the  hotel.  They 


60  SECESSION  vs.  SINCERITY.  [isei. 

were  very  noisy  and  profane,  crying — "  Let  us  see  him  ; 
"bring  out  the  scoundrel !" 

His  friend,  the  merchant,  spirited  him  out  of  the 
house  through  a  back  door,  and  drove  him  to  the  rail 
way  station,  whence  a  midnight  train  was  starting  for 
the  North.  His  pursuers,  finding  the  room  of  their 
victim  empty,  followed  in  hot  haste  to  the  depot.  The 
merchant  saw  them  coming,  and  again  conveyed  him 
away  to  a  private  room.  He  was  kept  concealed  for 
three  days,  until  the  excitement  subsided,  and  then 
went  north  by  a  night  train. 

One  of  the  clerks  at  the  hotel  where  I  was  boarding 
had  been  an  acquaintance  of  mine  in  the  North  ten  years 
before.  Though  I  now  saw  him  several  times  a  day, 
politics  were  seldom  broached  between  us.  But,  when 
ever  they  came  up,  we  both  talked  mild  Secession.  I 
did  not  believe  him  altogether  sincere,  and  I  presume  he 
did  me  equal  justice  ;  but  instinct  is  a  great  matter,  and 
we  were  cowards  on  instinct. 

During  the  next  summer,  I  chanced  to  meet  him  un 
expectedly  in  Chicago.  After  we  exchanged  greetings, 
his  first  question  was — 

"What  did  you  honestly  think  of  Secession  while  in 
New  Orleans?" 

"  Do  you  know  what  I  was  doing  there  ?" 

"  On  your  way  to  Mexico,  were  you  not?" 

"  No  ;  corresponding  for  Tlie  Tribune" 

His  eyes  expanded  visibly  at  this  information,  and 
he  inquired,  with  some  earnestness — 

"Do  you  know  what  would  have  been  done  with 
you  if  you  had  been  detected  ?" 

"  I  have  my  suspicions,  but,  of  course,  do.  not  know. 
Bo  you?" 

"  Yes ;  you  would  have  been  hung  !" 


1861.]      A  MANIA  FOR  SOUTHERN  MANUFACTURING.         61 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?" 

"  I  am  sure  of  it.  You  would  not  have  had  a  shadow 
of  chance  for  your  life  !" 

My  friend  knew  the  Secessionists  thoroughly,  and 
his  evidence  was  doubtless  trustworthy.  I  felt  no  in 
clination  to  test  it  by  repeating  the  experiment. 

The  establishment  of  domestic  manufactures  was 
always  a  favorite  theme  throughout  the  South ;  but  the 
manufactures  themselves  continued  very  rudimentary. 
The  furniture  dealers,  for  example,  made  a  pretense  of 
making  their  own  wares.  They  invariably  showed  cus 
tomers  through  their  workshops,  and  laid  great  stress 
upon  their  encouragement  of  southern  industry ;  but 
they  really  received  seven-eighths  of  their  furniture  from 
the  North,  having  it  delivered  at  back-doors,  under 
cover  of  the  night. 

Secession  gave  a  new  impetus  to  all  sorts  of  manufac 
turing  projects.  The  daily  newspapers  constantly  advo 
cated  them,  but  were  quite  oblivious  of  the  vital  truth 
that  skilled  labor  will  have  opinions,  and  opinions  can 
not  be  tolerated  in  a  slave  community. 

One  sign  on  Canal-street  read,  "Sewing  Machines 
manufactured  on  Southern  Soil" — a  statement  whose 
truth  was  more  than  doubtful.  The  agent  of  a  rival 
machine  advertised  that  his  patent  was  owned  in  New 
Orleans,  and,  therefore,  pre-eminently  worthy  of  patron 
age.  Little  pasteboard  boxes  were  labeled  "  Superior 
Southern  Matches,"  and  the  newspapers  announced 
exultingly  that  a  candy  factory  was  about  to  be  estab 
lished. 

But  the  greatest  stress  was  laid  upon  the  Southern 
Shoe  Factory,  on  St.  Ferdinand- street — a  joint  stock  con 
cern,  with  a  capital  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
It  was  only  two  months  old,  and,  therefore,  experi- 


62          VISIT  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  SHOE  FACTORY.        [ISGI. 

mental ;  but  its  work  was  in  great  demand,  and  it  was 
the  favorite  illustration  of  the  feasibility  of  southern 
manufactures. 

Sauntering  in,  one  evening,  I  introduced  myself  as  a 
stranger,  drawn  thither  by  curiosity.  The  superintend 
ent  courteously  invited  me  to  go  through  the  establish 
ment  with  him. 

"  His  physiognomy  and  manners  impressed  me  as  un 
mistakably  northern ;  but,  to  make  assurance  doubly 
sure,  I  ventured  some  remark  which  inferred  that  he 
was  a  native  of  New  Orleans.  He  at  once  informed  me 
that  he  was  from  St.  Louis.  When  I  pursued  the  mat 
ter  further,  by  speaking  of  some  recent  improvements  in 
that  city,  he  replied  : 

"I  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  but  left  there  when  I  was 
twelve  months  old.  Philadelphia  has  been  my  home 
since,  until  I  came  here  to  take  charge  of  this  establish 
ment." 

The  work  was  nearly  all  done  with  machinery  run 
by  steam.  As'we  walked  through  the  basement,  and 
he  pointed  out  the  implements  for  cutting  and  pressing 
sole-leather,  I  could  not  fail  to  notice  that  every  one 
bore  the  label  of  its  manufacturer,  followed  by  these 
incendiary  words  :  "  Boston,  Massachusetts!" 

Then  we  ascended  to  the  second  story,  where  sewing 
and  pegging  were  going  on.  All  the  stitching  was  done 
as  in  the  large  northern  manufactories,  with  sewing- 
machines  run  by  steam — a  combination  of  two  of  the 
greatest  mechanical  inventions.  Add  a  third,  arid  in  the 
printing-press,  the  steam-engine,  and  the  sewing-ma 
chine,  you  have  the  most  potent  material  agencies  of 
civilization. 

Here  was  the  greatest  curiosity  of  all — the  patent 
pegging-machine,  which  cuts  out  the  pegs  from  a  thin 


1861.]  WHERE  ITS  FACILITIES  CAME  FROM.  63 

strip  of  wood,  inserts  the  awl,  and  pegs  two  rows 
around  the  sole  of  a  large  shoe,  more  regularly  and 
durably  than  it  can  "be  done  by  hand — all  in  less  than 
twenty-five  seconds.  Need  I  add  that  it  is  a  Yankee 
invention  ?  One  machine  for  finishing,  smoothing,  and 
polishing  the  soles  came  from  Paris ;  but  all  the  others 
bore  that  ominous  label,  " Boston,  Massachusetts!"  In 
the  third  story,  devoted  to  fitting  the  soles  and  other 
finishing  processes,  the  same  fact  was  apparent — every 
machine  was  from  New  England. 

The  work  was  confined  exclusively  to  coarse  planta 
tion  brogans,  which  were  sold  at  from  thirteen  to  nine 
teen  dollars  per  case  of  twelve  pairs.  Shoes  of  the  same 
quality,  at  the  great  factories  in  Milford,  Haverhill,  and 
Lynn,  Massachusetts,  were  then  selling  by  the  manufac 
turers  at  prices  ranging  from  six  to  thirteen  dollars  per 
case.  In  one  apartment  we  found  three  men  making 
boxes  for  packing  the  shoes,  from  boards  already  sawed 
and  dressed. 

"  Where  do  you  get  your  lumber  ?"  I  asked. 

"It  comes  from  Illinois,"  replied  my  cicerone. 
"  We  have  it  planed  and  cut  out  in  St.  Louis — labor  is  so 
high  here." 

c '  Your  workmen,  I  presume,  are  from  this  city  f ' 

"  No,  sir.  The  leading  men  in  all  departments  are 
from  the  North,  mainly  from  Massachusetts  and  Phila 
delphia.  We  are  compelled  to  pay  them  high  salaries— 
from  sixty  to  three  hundred  dollars  per  month.  The 
subordinate  workmen,  whom  we  hope  soon  to  put 
in  their  places,  we  found  here.  We  employ  forty- seven 
persons,  and  turn  out  two  hundred  and  fifty  pairs  of 
brogans  daily.  We  find  it  impossible  to  supply  the  de 
mand,  and  are  introducing  more  machinery,  which  will 
soon  enable  us  to  make  six  hundred  pairs  per  day." 


64  How  "  SOUTHERN"  SHOES  WERE  MADE. 

1 1  Where  do  yon  procure  the  "birch  for  pegs  V ' 

"  From  Massachusetts.  It  comes  to  us  cut  in  strips 
and  rolled,  ready  for  use." 

"  Where  do  you  get  your  leather  2" 

"  Well,  sir"  (with  a  searching  look,  as  if  a  little  sus 
picious  of  being  quizzed),  "  it  also  comes  from  the  North, 
at  present ;  but  we  shall  soon  have  tanneries  established. 
The  South,  especially  Texas,  produces  the  finest  hides  in 
the  country ;  but  they  are  nearly  all  sent  north,  to  be 
tanned  and  curried,  and  then  brought  back  in  the  form 
of  leather." 

Thanking  the  superintendent  for  his  courtesy,  and 
wishing  him  a  very  good  evening,  I  strolled  homeward, 
reflecting  upon  the  SoutJiern  Shoe  Factory.  It  was  ad 
mirably  calculated  to  appeal  to  local  patriotism,  and 
demonstrate  the  feasibility  of  southern  manufacturing. 
Its  northern  machinery,  run  by  northern  workmen, 
under  a  northern  superintendent,  turned  out  brogans  of 
northern  leather,  fastened  with  northern  pegs,  and 
packed  in  cases  of  northern  pine,  at  an  advance  of  only 
about  one  hundred  per  cent,  upon  northern  prices  ! 

New  Orleans  aiforded  to  the  stranger  few  illustrations 
of  the  /'Peculiar  Institution."  Along  the  streets,  you 
saw  the  sign,  "  Slave  Depot — Negroes  bought  and  sold," 
upon  buildings  which  were  filled  with  blacks  of  every 
age  and  of  both  sexes,  waiting  for  purchasers.  The 
newspapers,  although  recognizing  slavery  in  general  as 
the  distinguishing  cause  which  made  southern  gentlemen 
gallant  and  "high-toned,"  and  southern  ladies  fair  and 
accomplished,  were  yet  reticent  of  details.  They  would 
sometimes  record  briefly  the  killing  of  a  master  by  his 
negroes  ;  the  arrest  of  A.,  charged  with  being  an  Aboli 
tionist  ;  of  B.,  for  harboring  or  tampering  with  slaves  ;  of 
C. — f.  m.  c.  (free  man  of  color) — for  violating  one  of  the 


1861.]  STUDYING  SOUTHERN  SOCIETY.  65 

many  laws  that  hedged  him  in  ;  and,  very  rarely,  of  D., 
for  cruelty  to  his  slaves.  But  their  advertising  columns 
were  filled  with  announcements  of  slave  auctions,  and 
long  descriptions  df  the  negroes  to  "be  sold.  Said  Tlie 
Crescent : 

"  We  have  for  a  long  time  thought  that  no  man  ought  to  be  allowed 
to  write  for  the  northern  Press,  unless  he  has  passed  at  least  two  years 
of  his  existence  in  the  Slave  States  of  the  South,  doing  nothing  but 
studying  southern  institutions,  southern  society,  and  the  character  and 
sentiments  of  the  southern  people." 

There  was  much  truth  in  this,  though  not  in  the  sense 
intended  "by  the  writer.  Strangers  spending  but  a  short 
time  in  the  South  were  liable  to  very  erroneous  views. 
They  saw  only  the  exterior  of  a  system,  which  looked 
pleasant  and  patriarchal.  They  had  no  opportunity  of 
learning  that,  within,  it  was  full  of  dead  men's  bones 
and  all  uncleanness.  Northern  men  were  so  often  de 
ceived  as  to  make  one  skeptical  of  the  traditional  acute- 
ness  of  the  Yankee.  The  genial  and  hospitable  south 
erners  would  draw  the  long  bow  fearfully.  A  Memphis 
gentleman  assured  a  northern  friend  of  mine  that,  on 
Sundays,  it  was  impossible  for  a  white  man  to  hire  a  car 
riage  in  that  city,  as  the  negroes  monopolized  them  all 
for  pleasure  excursions  ! 

One  of  my  New  Orleans  companions,  who  was  frank 
and  candid  upon  other  subjects,  used  to  tell  me  the  most 
egregious  stories  respecting  the  slaves.  As,  for 
instance,  that  their  marriage-vows  were  almost  univer 
sally  held  sacred  by  the  masters  ;  the  virtue  of  negro 
women  respected,  and  families  rarely  separated.  I  pre 
served  my  gravity,  never  disputing  him  ;  but  he  must 
have  known  that  a  visit  to  any  of  the  half-dozen  slave 
auctions,  within  three  minutes'  walk  of  his  office,  would 
disprove  all  these  statements. 

5 


66  REPORTING  A  SLAVE  AUCTION.  [isei. 

These  slave  auctions  were  the  only  public  places 
where  the  primary  social  formation  of  the  South  cropped 
out  sharply.  I  attended  them  frequently,  as  the  best 
school  for  "  studying  southern  institutions,  southern  so 
ciety,  and  the  character  and  sentiments  of  the  southern 
people." 

I  remember  one  in  which  eighty  slaves  were  sold,  one 
after  another.  A  second,  at  which  twenty-one  negroes 
were  disposed  of,  I  reported,  in  extenso,  from  notes 
written  upon  blank  cards  in  my  pocket  during  its 
progress.  Of  course,  it  was  not  safe  to  make  any 
memoranda  openly. 

The  auction  was  in  the  great  bar-room  of  the  St. 
Charles  Hotel,  a  spacious,  airy  octagonal  apartment, 
with  a  circular  range  of  Ionic  columns.  The  marble  bar, 
covering  three  sides  of  the  room,  was  doing  a  brisk  busi 
ness.  Three  perturbed  tapsters  were  bustling  about  to 
supply  with  fluids  the  bibulous  crowd,  which  by  no 
means  did  its  spiriting  gently. 

The  negroes  stood  in  a  row,  in  front  of  the  auction 
eer'  s  platform,  with  numbered  tickets  pinned  upon  their 
coats  and  frocks.  Thus,  a  young  woman  with  a  baby 
in  her  arms,  who  rolled  his  great  white  eyes  in  astonish 
ment,  was  ticketed  "No.  7."  Referring  to  the  printed 
list,  I  found  this  description  : 

"  7.  Betty,  aged  15  years,  and  child  4  months,  No.  1  field-hand  and 
house-servant,  very  likely.  Fully  guaranteed." 

In  due  time,  Betty  and  her  boy  were  bid  off  for 
$1,165. 

Those  already  sold  were  in  a  group  at  the  other  end 
of  the  platform.  One  young  woman,  in  a  faded  frock 
and  sun-bonnet,  and  wearing  gold  ear-rings,  had  straight 
brown  hair,  hazel  eyes,  pure  European  features,  and  a 


1861.]  SALE  OF  A  WHITE  GIRL.  67 

/ 
very  light  complexion.     I  was  unable  to  detect  in  her 

face  the  slightest  trace  of  negro  lineage.  Her  color, 
features,  and  movements  were  those  of  an  ordinary  coun 
try  girl  of  the  white  working  class  in  the  South.  A 
by-stander  assured  me  that  she  was  sold  under  the  ham 
mer,  just  before  I  entered.  She  associated  familiarly 
with  the  negroes,  and  left  the  room  with  them  when  the 
sale  was  concluded ;  but  no  one  would  suspect,  under 
other  circumstances,  that  she  was  tinged  with  African 
blood. 

The  spectators,  about  two  hundred  in  number,  were 
not  more  than  one-tenth  bidders.  There  were  planters 
from  the  interior,  with  broad  shoulders  and  not  unpleas- 
ing  faces  ;  city  merchants,  and  cotton  factors  ;  fast  young 
men  in  pursuit  of  excitement,  and  strangers  attracted  by 
curiosity. 

Among  the  latter  was  a  spruce  young  man  in  the 
glossiest  of  broadcloth,  and  the  whitest  of  linen,  with  an 
unmistakable  Boston  air.  He  lounged  carelessly  about, 
and  endeavored  to  look  quite  at  ease,  but  made  a  very 
brilliant  failure.  His  restless  eye  and  tell-tale  counte 
nance  indicated  clearly  that  he  was  among  the  Philistines 
for  the  first  time,  and  held  them  in  great  terror. 

There  were  some  professional  slave- dealers,  and  many 
nondescripts  who  would  represent  the  various  shades 
between  loafers  and  blacklegs,  in  any  free  community. 
They  were  men  of  thick  lips,  sensual  mouths,  full  chins, 
large  necks,  and  bleared  eyes,  suggesting  recent  dissipa 
tion.  They  were  a  ''hard-looking"  company.  I  would 
not  envy  a  known  Abolitionist  who  should  fall  into  their 
unrestrained  clutches.  No  prudent  life-insurance  com 
pany  would  take  a  risk  in  him. 

The  auctioneer  descanted  eloquently  upon  the  merits 
of  each  of  his  chattels,  seldom  dwelling  upon  one  more 


68  WOMEN  ON  THE  BLOCK.  [isei. 

than  five  minutes.  An  herculean  fellow,  with  an  immense 
chest,  was  dressed  in  rusty  Hack,  and  wore  a  superan 
nuated  silk  hat.  He  looked  the  decayed  gentleman  to  a 
charm,  and  was  Ibid  off  for  §840.  A  plump  yellow  "boy, 
also  in  black,  silk  hat  and  all,  seemed  to  think  "being 
sold  rather  a  good  joke,  grinning  "broadly  the  while,  and, 
at  some  jocular  remark,  showing  two  rows  of  white  teeth 
almost  from  ear  to  ear.  He  brought  $1,195,  and  appeared 
proud  of  commanding  so  high  a  figure. 

Several  light  quadroon  girls  brought  large  prices. 
One  was  surrounded  by  a  group  of  coarse-looking  men, 
who  addressed  her  in  gross  language,  shouting  with 
laughter  as  she  turned  away  to  hide  her  face,  and  rudely 
manipulating  her  arms,  shoulders,  and  breasts.  Her  age 
was  not  given.  "That's  the  trouble  with  niggers,"  re 
marked  a  planter  to  me;  "you  never  can  tell  how  old 
they  are,  and  so  you  get  swindled."  One  mother  and 
her  infant  sold  for  $1,415. 

Strolling  into  the  St.  Charles,  a  few  days  later,  I  found 
two  sales  in  full  career.  On  one  platform  the  auctioneer 
was  recommending  a  well-proportioned,  full-blooded 
negro,  as  "a  very  likely  and  intelligent  young  man,  gen 
tlemen,  who  would  have  sold  readily,  a  year  ago,  for 
thirteen  hundred  dollars.  And  now  I -am  offered  only 
eight  hundred — eight  hundred — eight  hundred — eight 
hundred  ;  are  you  all  done  ?" 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  room  another  auctioneer, 
in  stentorian  tones,  proclaimed  the  merits  of  a  pretty 
quadroon  girl,  tastefully  dressed,  and  wearing  gold  finger 
and  ear  rings.  "  The  girl,  gentlemen,  is  only  fifteen  years 
old ;  warranted  sound  in  every  particular,  an  excellent 
seamstress,  which  would  make  her  worth  a  thousand 
dollars,  if  she  had  no  oilier  qualifications.  She  is  sold 
for  no  fault,  but  simply  because  her  owner  must  have 


1861.]        MOTHERS  AND  CHILDREN. — "  DEFECTS.''  69 

money.  No  married  man  had  better  buy  her ;  she  is  too 
handsome."  The  girl  was  bid  off  at  $1,100,  and  stepped 
down  to  make  way  for  a  field-hand.  Ascending  the 
steps,  he  stumbled  and  fell,  at  which  the  auctioneer 
saluted  him  with  "  Come  along,  G — d  d — n  you  !" 

Mothers  and  their  very  young  children  were  not  often 
separated;  but  I  frequently  saw  husbands  and  wives 
sold  apart ;  no  pretense  being  made  of  keeping  them 
together.  Negroes  were  often  offered  with  what  was 
decorously  described  as  a  "  defect' '  in  the  arm,  or 
shoulder.  Sometimes  it  appeared  to  be  the  result  of 
accident,  sometimes  of  punishment.  I  saw  one  sold  who 
had  lost  two  toes  from  each  foot.  No  public  inquiries 
were  made,  and  no  explanation  given.  He  replied  to 
questions  that  his  feet  "  hurt  him  sometimes,"  and  was 
bid  off  at  $625 — about  two-thirds  of  his  value  had  it  not 
been  for  the  "  defect." 

Some  slaves  upon  the  block — especially  the  mothers — 
looked  sad  and  anxious  ;  but  three  out  of  four  appeared 
careless  and  unconcerned,  laughing  and  jesting  with  each 
other,  both  before  and  after  the  sale.  The  young  people, 
especially,  often  seemed  in  the  best  of  spirits. 

And  yet,  though  familiarity  partially  deadened  the 
feeling  produced  by  the  first  one  I  witnessed,  a  slave 
auction  is  the  most  utterly  revolting  spectacle  that  I  ever 
looked  upon.  Its  odiousness  does  not  lie  in  the  lustful 
glances  and  expressions  which  a  young  and  comely 
woman  on  the  block  always  elicits  ;  nor  in  the  indelicate 
conversation  and  handling  to  which  she  is  subjected; 
nor  in  the  universal  infusion  of  white  blood,  which  tells 
its  own  story  about  the  morality  of  the  institution  ;  nor 
in  the  separation  of  families  ;  nor  in  the  sale  of  women— 
as  white  as  our  own  mothers  and  sisters — made  pariahs 
by  an  imperceptible  African  taint ;  nor  in  the  scars  and 


70  A  MOST  REVOLTING  SPECTACLE.  [ISGI. 

"  defects,"  suggestive  of  cruelty,  which  are  sometimes 
seen. 

All  these  features  are  "bad  enough,  "but  many  sales 
exhibit  few  of  them,  and  are  conducted  decorously.  The 
great  revolting  characteristic  lies  in  the  essence  of  the 
system  itself — that  claim  of  absolute  ownership  in  a 
human  being  with  an  immortal  soul — of  the  right  to  buy 
and  sell  him  like  a  horse  or  a  bale  of  cotton — which 
insults  Democracy,  belies  Civilization,  and  blasphemes 
Christianity. 

In  March,  there  was  a  heavy  snow-storm  in  JSTew 
York.  Telegraphic  intelligence  of  it  reached  me  in  an 
apartment  fragrant  with  orange  blossoms,  where  persons 
in  linen  clothing  were  discussing  strawberries  and  ice 
cream.  It  made  one  shiver  in  that  delicious,  luxurious 
climate.  Blind  old  Milton  was  right.  Where  should  he 
place  the  Garden  of  Eden  but  in  the  tropics?  How 
should  he  paint  the  mother  of  mankind  but  in 

"  The  flowing  gold 


Of  her  loose  tresses," 

as  a  blonde — the  distinctive  type  of  northern  beauty  ? 


isci.]          NORTHERNERS  AND  THE  MINUTE  MEN.  71 


CHAPTER  V. 

There's  villany  abroad ;  this  letter  shall  tell  you  more. — LOVE'S  LABOR  LOST. 

NEARLY  every  northerner  whom  I  heard  of  in  the 
South,  as  suffering  from  the  suspicion  of  Abolitionism, 
was  really  a  pro- slavery  man,  who  had  been  opposing 
the  Abolitionists  all  his  life.  I  recollect  an  amusing  in 
stance  of  a  man,  originally  from  a  radical  little  town  in 
Massachusetts,  who  had  been  domiciled  for  several  years 
in  Mississippi.  While  in  New  England,  during  the  cam 
paign  after  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected,  he  expressed 
pro-slavery  sentiments  so  odious  that  he  was  with  diffi 
culty  protected  from  personal  violence. 

He  was  fully  persuaded  in  his  heart  of  hearts  of  the 
divinity  of  Slavery ;  and,  I  doubt  not,  willing  to  fight 
for  it.  But  his  northern  birth  made  him  an  object  of 
suspicion ;  and,  immediately  after  the  outbreak  of  Seces 
sion,  the  inexorable  Minute  Men  waited  upon  him, 
inviting  him,  if  he  wished  to  save  his  life,  to  prepare  to 
quit  the  State  in  one  hour.  He  was  compelled  to  leave 
behind  property  to  the  amount  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  His  case  was  one  of  many. 

Even  from  a  Rebel  standpoint,  there  was  an  unpleas 
ant  injustice  about  this.  Perhaps  Democrats  were 
almost  the  only  northerners  now  in  the  South — Repub 
licans  and  Abolitionists  staying  away,  in  the  exercise  of 
that  discretion  which  is  the  better  part  of  valor. 

I  well  remember  thinking,  as  I  strolled  down  to  the 
post-office  one  evening,  with  a  long  letter  in  my  pocket, 
which  gave  a  minute  and  bitterly  truthful  description  of 
the  slave  auctions : 


72  A  LIVELY  DISCUSSION.  [isei. 

"If  the  Minute  Men  were  to  pounce  upon  me  now, 
and  find  this  dispatch,  no  amount  of  plausible  talking 
could  save  me.  There  would  "be  a  vacancy  on  The 
Tribune  staff  within  the  next  hour." 

But  when  the  message  was  safely  deposited  in  the 
letter-box,  I  experienced  a  sort  of  relief  in  the  feeling 
that  if  the  Eebels  were  now  to  mob  or  imprison  me,  I 
should  at  least  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  they 
were  not  mistaking  souls ;  and  that,  if  I  were  forced  to 
emulate  Saint  Paul  in  "  labors  more  abundant,  in  stripes 
above  measure,  in  pains  more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft,"  I 
should,  in  their  code,  most  richly  have  earned  mar 
tyrdom. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  March  17,  1861. 

Yesterday  was  a  lively  day  in  the  Convention.  Mr. 
Bienvenu  threw  a  hot  shot  into  the  Secession  camp,  in 
the  shape  of  an  ordinance  demanding  a  report  of  the 
official  vote  in  each  parish  (county)  by  which  the  dele 
gates  were  elected.  This  would  prove  that  the  popular 
vote  of  the  State  was  against  immediate  Secession  by  a 
majority  of  several  hundred.  The  Convention  would  not 
permit  such  exposure  of  its  defiance  of  the  popular  will ; 
and,  by  seventy-three  to  twenty-two,  refused  to  consider 
the  question. 

A  warm  discussion  ensued,  on  the  ordinance  for  sub 
mitting  the  "Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America"  to  the  popular  vote,  for  ratification  or  rejection. 
The  ablest  argument  against  it  was  by  Thomas  J. 
Semmes,  of  New  Orleans,  formerly  attorney-general  of 
Louisiana.  He  is  a  keen,  wiry-looking,  spectacled  gen 
tleman,  who,  in  a  terse,  incisive  speech,  made  the  best 
of  a  bad  cause.  The  pith  of  his  argument  was,  that 
Republican  Governments  are  not  based  upon  pure  De 
mocracy,  but  upon  what  Mr.  Calhoun  termed  "  concurring 


1861.]  BOLDNESS  OF  UNION  MEMBERS.  73 

majorities."  The  voters  had  delegated  full  powers  to 
the  Convention,  which  was  the  "  sublimated,  concen 
trated  quintessence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people." 

The  speaker's  lip  curled  with  ineffable  scorn  as  he 
rang  the  changes  upon  the  words  "mere  numerical  major 
ities."  Just  now,  this  is  a  favorite  phrase  with  the 
Rebels  throughout  the  South.  Yet  they  all  admit  that 
a  majority,  even  of  one  vote,  in  Mississippi  or  Virginia, 
justly  controls  the  action  of  the  State,  and  binds  the 
minority.  I  wish  they  would  explain  why  a  umere 
numerical  majority"  is  more  oppressive  in  a  collection 
of  States  than  in  a  single  commonwealth. 

Mr.  Add  Eozier,  of  New  Orleans,  in  a  bold  speech, 
advocated  submitting  the  constitution  to  the  people.  On 
being  asked  by  a  member — "Did  you  vote  for  the 
Secession  ordinance  several  weeks  ago?"  he  replied, 
emphatically  :— 

"  No  ;  and,  so  help  me  God,  I  never  will !" 

A  spontaneous  outburst  of  applause  from  the  lobby 
gave  an  index  of  the  stifled  public  sentiment.  Mr. 
Rozier  charged  that  the  Secessionists  knew  they  were 
acting  against  the  popular  will,  and  dared  not  appeal  to 
the  people.  Until  the  Montgomery  constitution  should 
become  the  law  of  the  land,  he  utterly  spurned  it,  spat 
upon  it,  trampled  it  under  his  feet. 

Mr.  Christian  Roselius,  also  of  this  city,  advocated 
the  ordinance  with  equal  boldness  and  fervor.  He 
insisted  that  it  was  based  on  the  fundamental  principle 
of  Republicanism — that  this  Convention  was  no  Long 
Parliament  to  rule  Louisiana  without  check  or  limit ;  and 
he  ridiculed  with  merciless  sarcasm  Mr.  Semmes'  s  theory 
of  the  "sublimated,  concentrated  quintessence  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people." 

The  inexorable  majority  here  cut  off  debate,  calling 


74  ANOTHER  EXCITING  DISCUSSION.  [isei. 

the  previous  question,  and  defeated  the  ordinance  Tby  a 
vote  of  seventy-three  to  twenty- six. 

This  body  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  Secession 
Oligarchy.  It  appointed,  from  its  own  members,  the 
Louisiana  delegates  to  the  Convention  of  all  the  seceded 
States  which  framed  the  Montgomery  Constitution,  and 
now  it  proposes  to  pass  finally  upon  their  action,  leaving 
the  people  quite  out  of  sight. 

March  21. 

Another  exciting  day  in  the  Convention.  Subject : 
"  The  adoption  of  the  Montgomery  Constitution."  Five 
or  six  Union  members  fought  it  very  gallantly,  and  de 
nounced  unsparingly  the  plan  of  a  Cotton  Confederacy, 
and  the  South  Carolina  policy  of  trampling  upon  the 
rights  of  the  people.  The  majority  made  little  attempt 
to  refute  these  arguments,  but  some  of  the  angry  mem 
bers  glared  fiercely  upon  Messrs.  Eoselius,  Rozier,  and 
Bienvenu,  who  certainly  displayed  high  moral  and  phy 
sical  courage.  It  is  easy  for  you  in  the  North  to  de 
nounce  Secession;  but  to  oppose  it  here,  as  those  gen 
tlemen  did,  requires  more  nerve  than  most  men  possess. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Roselius  was  able  and  bitter.  This 
was  not  a  constitution ;  it  was  merely  a  league — a  treaty 
of  alliance.  It  sprung  from  an  audacious,  unmitigated 
oligarchy.  It  was  a  retrogression  of  six  hundred  years 
in  the  science  of  government.  We  were  told  (here  the 
speaker' s  sarcasm  of  manner  was  ludicrous  and  inimit 
able,  drawing  shouts  of  laughter  even  from  the  leading 
Secessionists)  that  this  body  represented  the  "  sub 
limated,  concentrated  quintessence  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people  !" 

He  supposed  that  Csesar,  when  he  crossed  the  Rubi 
con — Augustus,  when  he  overthrew  the  Roman  Repub- 


1861.]  SECESSION  IN  A  NUTSHELL.  75 

lie — Cromwell,  when  lie  broke  up  the  Long  Parliament — 
Bonaparte,  when  he  suppressed  the  Council  of  Five 
Hundred  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet — Louis  Napoleon, 
when  he  violated  his  oath  to  the  republic,  and  ascended 
the  imperial  throne — were  each  the  ' '  sublimated,  concen 
trated  quintessence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people." 

Like  the  most  odious  tyrannies  of  history,  it  preserved 
the  forms  of  liberty  ;  but  its  spirit  was  crushed  out. 
The  Convention  from  which  this  creature  crept  into  light 
had  imitated  the  odious  government  of  Spain — the  only 
one  in  the  world  taxing  exports — by  levying  an  export 
duty  upon  cotton.  He  was  surprised  that  the  Mont 
gomery  legislators  failed  to  introduce  a  second  Spanish 
feature — the  Inquisition.  One  was  as  detestable  as  the 
other. 

Mr.  Roselius  concluded  in  a  broken  voice  and  with 
great  feeling.  His  heart  grew  sad  at  this  overthrow  of 
free  institutions.  The  Secession  leaders  had  dug  the 
grave  of  republican  liberty,  and  we  were  called  upon 
to  assist  at  the  funeral !  He  would  have  no  part  in  any 
such  unhallowed  business. 

Mr.  Rozier,  firm  to  the  last,  now  offered  an  amend 
ment  : 

That  in  adopting  the  Montgomery  Constitution,  "the  sovereign  State 
of  Louisiana  does  expressly  reserve  the  right  to  withdraw  from  the  Union 
created  ~by  that  Constitution,  whenever,  in  the  judgment  of  her  citizens, 
her  paramount  interests  may  require  it." 

This,  of  course,  is  Secession  in  a  nutshell — the  funda 
mental  principle  of  the  whole  movement.  But  the  lead 
ers  refused  to  take  their  own  medicine,  and  tabled  the 
proposition  without  discussion. 

Mr.  Bienvenu  caused  to  be  entered  upon  the  journal 
his  protest  against  the  action  of  the  Convention,  de 
nouncing  it  as  an  ordinance  which  "strips  the  people  of 


76  DESPOTIC  THEORIES  OF  THE  REBELS.  [isei. 

their  sovereignty,  reduces  them  to  a  state  of  vassalage, 
and  places  the  destinies  of  the  State,  and  of  the  new 
Republic,  at  the  mercy  of  an  uncommissioned  and 
irresponsible  oligarchy." 

The  final  vote  was  then  taken,  and  resulted  in  one 
hundred  and  one  yeas  to  seven  nays  ;  so  "  the  Confed 
erate  Constitution"  is  declared  ratified  by  the  State  of 
Louisiana. 

March  25. 

The  Revolutionists  can  not  be  charged  with  any  lack 
of  frankness.  The  Delta,  lamenting  that  the  Virginia 
Convention  will  not  take  that  State  out  of  the  Union, 
predicts  approvingly  that  ' '  some  Cromwellian  influence 
will  yet  disperse  the  Convention,  and  place  the  Old 
Dominion  in  the  Secession  ranks."  De  Bow1  s  Review, 
a  leading  Secession  oracle,  with  high  pretensions  to 
philosophy  and  political  economy,  says,  in  its  current 
issue : 

"  All  government  begins  with,  usurpation,  and  is  continued  by  force. 
Nature  puts  the  ruling  elements  uppermost,  and  the  masses  below,  and 
subject  to  those  elements.  Less  than  this  is  not  a  government.  The 
right  to  govern  resides  with  a  very  small  minority,  and  the  duty  to  obey 
is  inherent  with  the  great  mass  of  mankind." 

To-day's  Crescent  discusses  the  propriety  of  admitting 
northern  States  into  the  Southern  Confederacy,  "when 
they  find  out,  as  they  soon  will,  that  they  can  not  get 
along  by  themselves."  It  is  quite  confident  that  they 
will,  ere  long,  beg  admission — but  predicts  for  them  the 
fate  of  the  Peri,  who 

-  "At  the  gate 
Of  Eden  stood,  disconsolate, 
And  wept  to  think  her  recreant  race 
Should  e'er  have  lost  that  glorious  place." 


1861.]  THE  NORTHWEST  TO  JOIN  THEM.  77 

They  must  not  be  permitted  to  enter.  Upon  this  point 
it  is  inexorable.  It  will  permit  no  compunctious  visit- 
ings  of  nature  to  shake  its  fell  purpose. 

I  know  all  this  sounds  vastly  like  a  joke ;  but  TJie 
Crescent  is  lugubriously  in  earnest.  In  sooth,  these 
Rebels  are  gentlemen  of  magnificent  expectations.  < '  Sir, ' ' 
remarked  one  of  them,  a  judge,  too,  while  conversing 
with  me  this  very  day,  "in  seven  years,  the  Southern 
Confederacy  will  be  the  greatest  and  richest  nation  on 
earth.  We  shall  have  Cuba,  Central  America,  Mexico, 
and  every  thing  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  We  are  the 
natural  market  of  the  northwestern  States,  and  they  are 
bound  to  join  us  !" 

Think  of  that,  will  you !  Imagine  Father  Giddings, 
Carl  Schurz,  and  Owen  Lovejoy — the  stanch  Republi 
can  States  of  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  even  young 
Kansas — whose  infant  steps  to  Freedom  were  over  the 
burning  plowshare  and  through  the  martyr's  blood- 
knocking  for  admission  at  the  door  of  a  Slave  Confeder 
acy  !  Is  not  this  the  very  ecstasy  of  madness  ? 

March  26. 

That  virtuous  and  lamented  body,  the  Louisiana 
Convention,  after  a  very  turbulent  session  to-day,  has 
adjourned  until  the  1st  of  November. 

TJie  Crescent  is  exercised  at  the  presence  here  of 
"correspondents  of  northern  papers,  who  indite  real 
falsehoods  and  lies  as  coolly  as  they  would  eat  a  dinner 
at  the  Saint  Charles."  The  Crescent? s  rhetoric  is  a  little 
limping  ;  but  its  watchfulness  and  patriotism  are  above 
all  praise.  The  matter  should  certainly  be  attended  to. 

We  are  still  enjoying  the  delights  of  summer.  The 
air  is  fragrant  with  daffodils,  violets,  and  roses,  the  buds 
of  the  sweet  olive  and  the  blossoms  of  the  orange.  I 


78          THE  SWAMP — A  TRIP  THROUGH  LOUISIANA.     .  [isei. 

have  just  returned  from  a  ride  through  the  swamp — that 
great  cesspool  of  this  metropolis,  which  generates,  with 
the  recurrence  of  summer,  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in 
darkness. 

It  is  full  of  sights  strange  to  northern  eyes.  The 
stagnant  pools  of  black  and  green  water  harmonize  with 
the  tall,  ghastly  dead  trees,  from  whose  "branches  de 
pend  long  fleeces  of  gray  Spanish  moss,  with  the  effect 
of  Gothic  architecture.  It  is  used  in  lounges  and  mat 
tresses  ;  but  when  streaming  from  the  branches,  in  its 
native  state,  reminds  one  of  the  fantastic  term  which  the 
Choctaw  Indians  apply  to  leaves — "  tree-hair." 

The  weird  dead  trunks,  the  moss  and  the  water, 
contrast  strikingly  with  the  rich,  bright  foliage  of  the 
deciduous  trees  just  glowing  into  summer  life.  The 
balmy  air  makes  physical  existence  delicious,  and  diffuses 
a  luxurious  languor  through  the  system.  Remove  your 
hat,  close  your  eyes,  and  its  strong  current  strokes  your 
brow  lovingly  and  nestles  against  your  cheek  like  a 
pillow. 


During  the  last  week  in  March,  I  went  by  the  New 
Orleans  and  Great  Northern  Railway  to  Jackson,  Missis 
sippi,  where  the  State  Convention  was  in  session. 

There  is  not  in  Louisiana  a  hill  two  hundred  feet  high. 
Along  the  railroad,  smooth,  grassy  everglades  give  place 
to  gloomy  swamps,  dark  with  the  gigantic  cypress  and 
the  varnished  leaves  of  the  laurel. 

On  the  plantations,  the  white  one-story  cabins  of  the 
negroes  stood  in  long  double  rows,  near  the  ample 
porched  and  balconied  residences  of  the  planters. 
Young  sugar-cane,  resembling  corn  two  or  three  weeks 
old,  was  just  peering  through  the  ground.  Noble  live- 


1861.]  LIFE  IN  THE  CITY  OF  JACKSON.  79 

oaks  waved  their  drooping  boughs  above  the  fields.  The 
Pride-of-China  tree  was  very  abundant  about  the  dwell 
ings.  It  produces  a  berry  on  which  the  birds  eagerly 
feed,  though  its  juice  is  said  to  intoxicate  them.  As  they 
do  not  wear  revolvers  or  bowie-knives,  it  is  rather  a 
harmless  form  of  dissipation. 

Jackson  was  not  a  paradise  for  a  man  of  my  voca 
tion.  Containing  four  or  five  thousand  people,  it  was 
one  of  those  delightful  villages,  calling  themselves 
cities,  of  which  the  sunny  South  by  no  means  enjoys  a 
monopoly — where  everybody  knows  everybody' s  busi 
ness,  and  where,  upon  the  advent  of  a  stranger,  the 
entire  community  resolves  itself  into  a  Committee  of 
the  Whole  to  learn  who  he  is,  where  he  came  from, 
and  what  he  wants. 

In  a  great  metropolis,  espionage  was  easily  baffled; 
but  in  Jackson,  an  unknown  chiel,  who  looked  capable 
of  "takin'  notes,"  to  say  nothing  of  "prentin'  'em,"  was 
subject  to  constant  and  uncomfortable  scrutiny. 

Contrasted  with  the  bustle  of  New  Orleans,  existence 
seemed  an  unbroken  seventh-day  rest,  though  a  dire 
certainty  possessed  me,  that  were  my  errand  suspected, 
e'en  Sunday  would  shine  no  Sabbath  day  for  me. 

Some  months  later,  a  refugee,  who  had  resided  there, 
pictured  vividly  to  me  the  indignant  and  bewildered 
astonishment  of  the  Jacksonians,  when,  through  a  stray 
copy  of  The  Tribune,  they  learned  that  one  of  its  cor 
respondents  had  not  only  walked  with  them,  talked 
with  them,  and  bought  with  them,  but,  less  scrupulous 
than  Shylock,  had  been  ready  to  eat  with  them,  drink 
with  them,  and  pray  with  them. 

At  this  time  the  Charleston  papers  and  some  northern 
journals  declared  Tlie  Tribune's  southern  correspond 
ence  fictitious,  and  manufactured  at  the  home  office.  To 


80        REPORTING  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CONVENTION. 

remove  that  impression  touching  my  own  letters,  I  wrote, 
on  certain  days,  the  minutest  records  of  the  Convention, 
and  of  affairs  in  Jackson,  which  never  found  their  way 
into  the  local  prints. 

Mournfully  metropolitan  was  Jackson  in  one  re 
spect — the  price  of  board  at  its  leading  hotel.  The 
accommodations  were  execrable  ;  but  I  suppose  we  were 
charged  for  the  unusual  luxury  of  an  unctuous  Teutonic 
landlord,  who  bore  the  formidable  patronymic  of 
H-i-1-z-h-e-i-m-e-r ! 

" Phoebus,  what  a  name, 

To  fill  the  speaking-trump  of  future  fame  !" 

The  Convention  was  discussing  the  submission  of  the 
Montgomery  Constitution  to  the  people.  The  chief 
clerk,  with  whom  I  formed  a  chance  acquaintance, 
kindly  invited  me  to  a  chair  beside  his  desk,  and  as  I  sat 
facing  the  members,  explained  to  me  their  capacity, 
views,  and  antecedents.  Whether  an  undue  inquisitive- 
ness  seemed  to  him  the  distinguishing  quality  of  the  New 
Mexican  mind,  he  did  not  declare  ;  but  once  he  asked 
me  abruptly  if  I  was  connected  with  the  press?  With 
the  least  possible  delay,  I  disabused  his  mind  of  that 
peculiarly  unjust  misapprehension. 

After  a  long  discussion,  the  Convention,  by  a  vote  of 
fifty -three  to  thirty-two,  refused  to  submit  the  Constitu 
tion  to  the  people,  and  ratified  it  in  the  name  of  Missis 
sippi.  Seven  Union  members  could  not  be  induced  to 
follow  the  usual  practice  of  making  the  action  unani 
mous,  but  to  the  last  steadfastly  refused  their  adherence. 


i8Gi.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  STATE  HOUSE.  81 


CHAPTER   VI. 

My  business  in  this  State 

Made  me  a  looker-on  here  in  Vienna.— MEASURE  FOR  MEASURE. 

I  whipped  me  behind  the  arras,  and  there  heard  it  agreed  upon. 

MUCH  APO  ABOUT  NOTHING. 

JACKSOX,  Miss.,  April  1,  1861. 

THE  Mississippi  State  House,  upon  a  shaded  square  in 
front  of  my  window,  is  a  faded,  sober  edifice,  of  the  style 
in  vogue  fifty  years  ago,  with  the  representative  hall  at 
one  end,  the  senate  chamber  at  the  other,  an  Ionic 
portico  in  front,  and  an  immense  dome  upon  the  top. 
Above  this  is  a  miniature  dome,  like  an  infinitesimal 
parasol  upon  a  gigantic  umbrella.  The  whole  is 
crowned  by  a  small  gilded  pinnacle,  which  has  relapsed 
from  its  original  perpendicular  to  an  angle  of  forty -five 
degrees,  and  looks  like  a  little  jockey- cap,  worn  jantily 
upon  the  head  of  a  plethoric  quaker,  to  whom  it  imparts 
a  rowdyish  air,  at  variance  with  his  general  gravity. 

The  first  story  is  of  cracked  free- stone,  the  front  and 
end  walls  of  stucco,  and  the  rear  of  brick.  As  you 
enter  the  vestibule  two  musty  cannon  stand  gaping  at 
you,  and  upon  one  of  them  you  may  see,  almost  any 
day,  a  little  "  darkey"  sound  asleep.  Whether  he 
guards  the  gun,  or  the  gun  guards  him,  opens  a  wide 
field  for  conjecture. 

Ascending  a  spiral  stairway,  and  passing  along  the 
balustrade  which  surrounds  the  open  space  under  the 
dome,  you  turn  to  the  left,  through  a  narrow  passage 
into  the  representative  hall.  Here  is  the  Mississippi 
Convention. 

At  the  north  end  of  the  apartment  sits  the  president, 

6 


§ 

82  VIEW  OF  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  HALL.  [ISGI. 

upon  a  high  platform  occupying  a  recess  in  the  wall, 
with  two  Ionic  columns  upon  each  side  of  him.  Before 
him  is  a  little,  old-fashioned  mahogany  pulpit,  conceal 
ing  all  but  his  head  and  shoulders  from  the  vulgar  gaze. 
In  front  of  this,  and  three  or  four  feet  lower,  at  a  long 
wooden  desk,  sit  two  clerks,  one  smoking  a  cigar. 

Before  them,  and  still  lower,  at  a  shorter  desk,  an 
unhappy  Celtic  reporter,  with  dark  shaggy  hair  and  eye- 
Ibrows,  is  taking  down  the  speech  of  the  honorable  mem 
ber  from  something  or  other  county.  In  front  of  his 
desk,  standing  rheumatically  upon  the  floor,  is  a  little 
table,  which  looks  as  if  called  into  existence  by  a 
drunken  carpenter  on  a  dark  night,  from  the  relics  of  a 
superannuated  dry-goods  box. 

Upon  one  of  the  columns  at  the  president's  right, 
hangs  a  faded  portrait  of  George  Poindexter,  once  a 
senator  from  this  State.  Further  to  the  right  is  an  open 
fire-place,  upon  whose  mantel  stand  a  framed  copy  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  now  sadly  faded  and 
blurred,  a  lithographic  view  of  the  Medical  College 
of  Louisiana,  and  a  pitcher  and  glass.  On  the  hearth  is 
a  pair  of  ancient  andirons,  upon  which  a  genial  wood 
fire  is  burning. 

The  hypocritical  plastering  which  coated  the  fire 
place  has  peeled  off,  leaving  bare  the  honest,  worn  faces 
of  the  original  bricks.  Some  peculiar  non-adhesive  in 
fluence  must  affect  plastering  in  Jackson.  In  whole 
rooms  of  the  hotel  it  has  seceded  from  the  lath.  Judge 
Gholson  says  that  once,  in  the  old  State  House,  a  few 
hundred  yards  distant,  when  Sargeant  S.  Prentiss  was 
making  a  speech,  he  saw  uan  acre  or  two"  of  the 
plastering  fall  upon  his  head,  and  quite  overwhelm  him 
for  the  time.  The  Judge  is  what  Count  Fosco  would 
call  the  Man  of  Brains  ;  he  is  deemed  the  ablest  member 


1861.]  GENERAL  Am  OF  DILAPIDATION.  83 

of  tlie  Convention.  He  was  a  colleague  in  Congress  of 
the  lamented  Prentiss,  whom  he  pronounces  the  most 
brilliant  orator  that  ever  addressed  a  Mississippi  au 
dience. 

On  the  left  of  the  president  is  another  fire-place,  also 
with  a  sadly  blurred  copy  of  the  great  Declaration  stand 
ing  upon  its  mantel.  The  members'  desks,  in  rows  like 
the  curved  line  of  the  letter  D,  are  of  plain  wood,  paint 
ed  black.  Their  chairs  are  great,  square,  faded  mahoga 
ny  frames,  stuffed  and  covered  with  haircloth.  As  you 
stand  beside  the  clerk' s  desk,  facing  them,  you  see  be 
hind  the  farthest  row  a  semi-circle  of  ten  pillars,  and 
beyond  them  a  narrow,  crescent  shaped  lobby.  Half 
way  up  the  pillars  is  a  little  gallery,  inhabited  just  now 
by  two  ladies  in  faded  mourning. 

In  the  middle  of  the  hall,  a  tarnished  brass  chan 
delier,  with  pendants  of  glass,  is  suspended  from  the 
ceiling  by  a  rod  festooned  with  cobwebs.  This  medieval 
relic  is  purely  ornamental,  for  the  room  is  lighted  with 
gas.  The  walls  are  high,  pierced  with  small  windows, 
whose  faded  blue  curtains,  flowered  and  bordered  with 
white,  are  suspended  from  a  triple  bar  of  gilded  Indian 
arrows. 

Chairs  of  cane,  rush,  wood  and  leather  seats — chairs 
with  backs,  and  chairs  without  backs,  are  scattered 
through  the  hall  and  lobby,  in  pleasing  illustration  of 
that  variety  which  is  the  spice  of  life.  The  walls  are 
faded,  cracked,  and  dingy,  pervaded  by  the  general  air 
of  mustiness,  and  going  to  "the  demnition  bow-wows" 
prevalent  about  the  building. 

The  members  are  in  all  sorts  of  social  democratic  posi 
tions.  In  the  open  spaces  about  the  clerk' s  desk  and  fire 
places,  some  sit  with  chairs  tilted  against  the  wall,  some 
upon  stools,  and  three  slowly  vibrate  to  and  fro  in  pre- 


84  A  FREE  AND  EASY  CONVENTION.  [ISGI. 

Raphaelite  rocking-chairs.  These  portions  of  the  hall 
present  quite  the  appearance  of  a  Kentucky  bar-room  on 
a  winter  evening. 

Two  or  three  members  are  eating  apples,  three  or 
four  smoking  cigars,  and  a  dozen  inspect  their  feet,  rest 
ing  upon  the  desks  before  them.  Contemplating  the 
spectacle  yesterday,  I  found  myself  involuntarily  repeat 
ing  the  couplet  of  an  old  temperance  ditty  : 

"The  rumseller  sat  by  his  bar-room  fire, 
With  his  feet  as  high  as  his  head,  and  higher," 

and  a  moment  after  I  was  strongly  tempted  to  give  the 
prolonged,  stentorian  shout  of  "  B-O-O-T-S  !"  familiar  to 
ears  theatrical.  Pardon  the  irreverence,  O  decorous 
Tribune  !  for  there  is  such  a  woful  dearth  of  amusement 
in  this  solemn,  funereal  city,  that  one  waxes  desperate. 
To  complete  my  inventory,  many  members  are  reading 
this  morning's  Mississippian,  or  The  New  Orleans 
Picayune  or  Delta,  and  the  rest  listen  to  the  one  who 
is  addressing  the  Chair. 

They  impress  you  by  their  pastoral  aspect — the  ab 
sence  of  urban  costumes  and  postures.  Their  general 
bucolic  appearance  would  assure  you,  if  you  did  not 
know  it  before,  that  there  are  not  many  large  cities  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi.  Your  next  impression  is  one  of 
wonder  at  their  immense  size  and  stature.  Of  them  the 
future  historian  may  well  say:  " There  were  giants  in 
those  days." 

All  around  you  are  broad-shouldered,  herculean- 
framed,  well-proportioned  men,  who  look  as  if  a  laugh 
from  them  would  bring  this  crazy  old  eapitol  down 
about  their  ears,  and  a  sneeze,  shake  the  great  globe 
itself.  The  largest  of  these  Mississippi  Anakim  is  a 
gigantic  planter,,  clothed  throughout  in  blue  homespun. 


1861.]   SOUTHERN  ORATORS — ANGLO-AFRICAN  DIALECT.      85 

You  might  select  a  dozen  out  of  the  ninety-nine  dele 
gates,  each  of  whom  could  personate  the  Original  Scotch 
Giant  in  a  traveling  exhibition.  They  have  large,  fine 
heads,  and  a  profusion  of  straight  brown  hair,  though 
here  and  there  is  a  crown  smooth,  bald,  and  shining. 
Taken  for  all  in  all,  they  are  fine  specimens  of  physical 
development,  with  frank,  genial,  jovial  faces. 

The  speaking  is  generally  good,  and  commands  re 
spectful  attention.  There  is  little  badinage  or  satire,  a 
good  deal  of  directness  and  coming  right  to  the  point, 
qualified  by  the  strong  southern  proclivity  for  ad 
jectives.  The  pungent  French  proverb,  that  the  ad 
jective  is  the  most  deadly  enemy  of  the  substantive,  has 
never  journeyed  south  of  Mason  &  Dixon's  line. 

The  members,  like  all  deliberative  bodies  in  this  lati 
tude,  are  mutual  admirationists.  Every  speaker  has  the 
most  profound  respect  for  the  honest  motives,  the  pure 
patriotism,  the  transcendent  abilities  of  the  honorable 
gentleman  upon  the  other  side.  It  excites  his  regret  and 
self-distrust  to  differ  from  such  an  array  of  learning  and 
eloquence ;  and  nothing  could  impel  him  to  but  a 
sense  of  imperious  duty. 

He  speaks  fluently,  and  with  grammatical  correctness, 
but  in  the  Anglo- African  dialect.  His  violent  denuncia 
tions  of  the  Black  Republicans  are  as  nothing  to  the 
gross  indignities  which  he  offers  to  the  letter  r.  His 
"mcfs"  "  befo's,"  and  "hetfs"  convey  reminiscences 
of  the  negress  who  nursed  him  in  infancy,  and  the  little 
"  pickaninnies"  with  whom  he  played  in  boyhood. 

The  custom  of  stump-speaking,  universal  through  the 
South  and  West,  is  a  capital  factory  for  converting  the 
raw  material  into  orators.  Of  course  there  are  strong 
exceptions.  This  very  morning  we  had  an  address  from 
one  member — Mr.  D.  B.  Moore,  of  Tuppah  county — 


86  A  SPEECH  WORTH  PRESERVATION.  [isei. 

which  is  worthy  of  more  particular  notice.  I  wish  I 
could  give  you  a  literal  report.  Pickwick  would  "be 
solemn  in  comparison. 

Mr.  Moore  conceives  himself  an  orator,  as  Brutus 
was  ;  but  in  attempting  to  cover  the  whole  subject  (the 
Montgomery  Constitution),  he  spread  himself  out  "very 
thin."  I  will  "back"  him  in  a  given  time  to  quote 
more  Scripture,  incorrectly,  irreverently,  and  irrelevant 
ly,  than  any  other  man  on  the  North  American  con 
tinent. 

His  "like  we"  was  peculiarly  refreshing,  and  his 
history  and  classics  had  a  strong  flavor  of  originality. 
He  quoted  Patrick  Henry,  "Let  Csesar  have  his  Bru 
tus  ;"  piled  "  Pelion  upon  Pelion!"  and  made  Sampson 
kill  Goliah ! !  He  thought  submitting  the  Secession 
ordinance  to  the  people  in  Texas  had  produced  an  ex 
cellent  effect.  Previous  to  it,  the  New  York  Tribune 
said:  "Secession  is  but  a  scheme  of  demagogues — a 
move  on  the  political  chess-board — the  people  oppose 
it."  But  afterward  it  began  to  ask:  "How  is  this? 
What  does  it  all  mean  ?  The  people  seem  to  have  a  hand 
in  it,  and  to  be  in  earnest,  too."  The  tone  of  Mr. 
Seward  also  changed  radically,  he  observed,  after  that 
election. 

Mr.  Moore  spoke  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  the  other 
members,  though  listening  courteously,  betrayed  a  lurk 
ing  suspicion  that  he  was  a  bore.  In  person  he  resem 
bles  Henry  S.  Lane,  the  zealous  United  States  Senator- 
elect  from  Indiana.  The  sergeant-at-arms,  who,  in  a  gray 
coat,  and  without  a  neckerchief,  walks  to  and  fro,  with 
hands  in  his  pockets,  looks  like  the  unlovely  James  H. 
Lane,  Senator-expectant  from  Kansas. 

Shall  I  give  you  a  little  familiar  conversation  of  the 
members,  as  they  smoke  their  post-prandial  cigars  in  the 


i86i.]         FAMILIAR  CONVERSATION  OF  MEMBERS.  87 

hall,  waiting  for  the  Convention  to  be  called  to  order  ? 
Every  mother' s  son  of  them  has  a  title. 

JUDGE. — Toombs  is  a  great  blusterer.  When  speak 
ing,  lie  seems  determined  to  force,  to  drive  you  into 
agreeing  with  him.  Howell  Cobb  is  another  blusterer, 
much  like  him,  but  immensely  fond  of  good  dinners. 
Aleck  Stephens  is  very  different.  When  lie  speaks,  you 
feel  that  he  desires  to  carry  you  with  him  only  by  the 
power  of  reason  and  argument. 

COLONEL. — I  knew  him  when  he  used  to  be  a  mail- 
carrier  in  Georgia.  He  was  a  poor  orphan  boy,  but  a 
charitable  society  of  ladies  educated  him.  He  is  a  very 
small  man,  with  a  hand  no  wider  than  my  three  fingers,, 
and  as  transparent  as  any  lady' s  who  has  been  sick  for  a 
year.  He  always  looked  like  an  invalid.  If  you  were 
to  cut  his  head  off,  I  don't  believe  he  would  bleed  a 
pint* 

MAJOR. — Do  you  know  what  frightened  Abe  Lin 
coln  out  of  Baltimore  \  Somebody  told  him  that  Aleck 
Stephens  was  lying  in  wait  for  him  on  a  street  corner, 
with  a  six-pounder  strapped  to  his  back.  When  he 
heard  that,  he  sloped.  [Loud  laughter  from  the  group.] 

JUDGE. — Well,  Lincoln  has  been  abused  immensely 
about  his  flight  through  Baltimore  ;  but  I  believe  the 
man  acted  from  good  motives.  He  knew  that  his  parti 
sans  there  meant  to  make  a  demonstration  when  he  ar 
rived,  and  that  they  were  very  obnoxious  to  the  people  ; 
lie  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  would  produce 

*IIe  never  weighed  over  ninety-six  pounds,  and,  to  see  his  attenuated 
figure  bent  over  his  desk,  the  shoulders  contracted,  and  the  shape  of  his 
slender  limbs  visible  through  his  garments,  a  stranger  would  select  him 
as  the  John  Randolph  of  our  time.  He  has  the  appearance  of  having 
Undergone  great  bodily  anguish. — Newspaper  Biography  of  Alexander 
JET.  Stephens. 


88        NEW  ORLEANS  AGAIN — REVIEWING  TROOPS.      [ISGI. 

trouble,  and  perhaps  "bloodshed  ;  so  he  went  through  se 
cretly,  to  avoid  it. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  April  5,  1861. 

The  Second  Louisiana  Zouaves  were  reviewed  on 
Lafayette  Square  last  evening,  "before  leaving  for 
Pensacola.  They  are  "boyish-looking,  and  handle  their 
muskets  as  if  a  little  afraid  of  them,  "but  seem  to  be  the 
raw  material  of  good  soldiers.  They  are  luridly  gro 
tesque,  in  closely-fitting,  blue-tasseled,  red  fez  caps,  blue 
flannel  jackets  and  frocks,  faced  with  red,  baggy  red 
breeches,  like  galvanized  corn-sacks,  and  gutta-percha 
greaves  about  their  ankles. 

April  6. 

All  the  Secession  leaders  except  Senator  Benjamin 
declare  there  will  be  no  war.  He  asserts  that  war  is  sure 
to  come  ;  and  in  a  recent  speech  characterized  it  as  "by 
no  means  an  unmixed  evil." 

The  Fire-Eaters  are  intensely  bitter  upon  the  border 
States  for  refusing  to  plunge  into  the  whirlpool  of  Seces 
sion.  They  are  bent  on  persuading  or  driving  all  the 
slave  States  into  their  ranks.  Otherwise  they  fear— in 
deed,  predict  frankly — that  the  border  will  gradually 
become  Abolitionized,  and  extend  free  territory  to  the 
Gulf  itself.  They  are  quite  willing  to  devote  Kentucky 
and  Virginia  to  the  devastation  of  civil  war,  or  the 
embarrassment  of  a  contiguous  hostile  republic,  which 
would  not  return  their  run-away  negroes.*  But  they 

*  By  the  last  census  report,  the  whole  number  of  escaping  fugitives 
in  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1860,  was  eight  hundred  and  three, 
being  a  trifle  over  one-fiftieth  of  one  per  cent,  upon  the  whole  number  of 
slaves.  Of  these,  it  is  probable  that  the  greater  part  fled  to  places  of 
refuge  in  the  South,  the  Dismal  Swamp,  everglades  of  Florida,  south 
ern  mountain  regions,  and  the  northern  States  of  Mexico. — Everett's 
New  York  Oration,  July  4,  1861. 


i86i.]  THREE  OBNOXIOUS  NORTHERNERS.  89 

•will  move  heaven  and  earth  to  save  themselves  from 
any  such  possible  contingency. 

April  8. 

The  recent  warlike  movements  of  the  National  Gov 
ernment  cause  excitement  and  surprise.  At  last,  the 
people  "begin  to  suspect  that  they  have  invoked  grim- 
visaged  war.  The  newspapers  descant  upon  the  injury 
to  commerce  and  industry.  Why  did  they  not  think  of 
all  this  before  ? 

It  is  vouchsafed  to  few  mortals  to  learn,  before  death, 
exactly  what  their  associates  think  of  them ;  but  your 
correspondent  is  among  the  favored  few.  The  other 
evening,  I  was  sitting  with  a  Secession  acquaintance,  in 
the  great  exchange  of  the  St.  Charles  Hotel,  when  con 
versation  turned  upon  the  southern  habit  of  lynching 
people  who  do  not  happen  to  agree  with  the  majority. 
He  presumed  enough  upon  my  ignorance  to  insist  that 
any  moderate,  gentlemanly  Republican  might  come  here 
with  impunity. 

"But,"  he  added,  "there  are  three  men  whose  safety 
I  would  not  guarantee." 

"  Who  are  they  3" 

"Governor  Dennison,  of  Ohio,  is  one.  Since  he  re 
fused  to  return  that  fugitive  slave  to  Kentucky,  he 
would  hardly  be  permitted  to  stay  in  New  Orleans ;  at 
all  events,  I  should  oppose  it.  Then  there  is  Andy 
Johnson.  He  ought  to  be  shot,  or  hanged,  wherever 
found.  But  for  him,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  would 
have  been  with  us  long  ago.  He  could  not  remain  here 
unharmed  for  a  single  hour." 

"  And  the  third  ?" 

"Some  infernal  scoundrel,  who  is  writing  abusive 
letters  about  us  to  The  New  York  Tribune." 

"Is it  possible?" 


90  ATTACK  ON  SUMTER — REBEL  BOASTING.          [ISGI. 

"Yes,  sir,  and  lie  lias  been  at  it  for  more  than  a 
month." 

"  Can't  you  find  him  out  ?" 

"  Some  think  it  is  a  Kentuckian,  who  pretends  to  "be 
engaged  in  cattle-trading,  but  only  makes  that  a  subter 
fuge.  I  suspect,  however,  that  it  is  an  editor  of  The 
Picayune,  which  is  a  Yankee  concern  through  and 
through.  If  he  is  caught,  I  don't  think  he  will  write 
many  more  letters." 

I  ventured  a  few  words  in  palliation  of  the  Governor 
and  the  Senator,  but  quite  agreed  that  this  audacious 
scribbler  ought  to  be  suppressed. 

April  12. 

Telegraphic  intelligence  to-day  of  the  attack  upon 
Fort  Sumter  causes  intense  excitement.  The  Delta  of 
fice  is  besieged  by  a  crowd  hungry  for  news.  The 
universal  expectation  of  the  easy  capture  of  the  fort  is 
not  stronger  than  the  belief  that  it  will  be  followed  by  an 
immediate  and  successful  movement  against  the  city  of 
Washington.  The  politicians  and  newspapers  have  per 
suaded  the  masses  that  the  Yankees  (a  phrase  which  they 
no  longer  apply  distinctively  to  New  Englanders,  but 
to  every  person  born  in  the  North)  mean  to  subjugate 
them,  but  are  arrant  cowards,  who  may  easily  be  fright 
ened  away.  Leading  men  seldom  express  this  opinion ; 
yet  The  Crescent,  giving  the  report  that  eight  thousand 
Massachusetts  troops  have  been  called  into  the  field, 
adds,  that  if  they  would  come  down  to  Pensacola,  eight 
een  hundred  Confederates  would  easily  "  whip  them 
out." 

"  God  help  them  if  the  tempest  swings 
The  pine  against  the  palm!" 


1861.]        ABOLITION  TENDENCIES  OF  KENTUCKIANS.         91 


CHAPTER    VII. 

-Thou  sure  and  firm-set  earth, 
Hear  not  my  steps,  which  way  they  walk,  for  fear 
Thy  very  stones  prate  of  my  whereabout. — MACBETH. 

THERE  were  two  of  my  acquaintances  (one  very  prom 
inent  in  the  Secession  movement)  with,  whom,  while  they 
had  no  suspicion  of  my  real  business,  I  could  converse 
with  a  little  frankness.  One  of  them  desired  war,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  unite  the  inhabitants  of  all  the 
border  slave  States,  and  overpower  the  Union  sentiment 
there. 

"But,"  I  asked,  "will  not  war  also  unite  the  people 
of  the  North  ?" 

"  I  think  not.  We  have  a  great  many  earnest  and 
bold  friends  there." 

"  True  ;  but  do  you  suppose  they  could  stand  for  a 
single  week  against  the  popular  feeling  which  war 
would  arouse?" 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right,"  he  replied,  thoughtfully, 
"but  it  never  occurred  to  me  before." 

My  other  friend  also  talked  with  great  frankness : 

"  We  can  get  along  very  well  with  the  New  England 
Yankees  who  are  permanently  settled  here.  They  make 
the  strongest  Secessionists  we  have  ;  but  the  Kentuckians 
give  us  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  They  were  born  and 
raised  where  Slavery  is  unprofitable.  They  have  strong 
proclivities  toward  Abolitionism.  The  constituents  of 
Rozier  and  Roselius,  who  fought  us  so  persistently  in 
the  Convention,  are  nearly  all  Kentuckians. 


92  Two  CHIEF  CAUSES  OF  SECESSION.  [isei. 

"  Slavery  is  our  leading  interest.  Right  or  wrong, 
we  have  it  and  we  must  have  it.  Cotton,  rice,  and  sugar 
cannot  be  raised  without  it.  Being  a  necessity,  we  do 
not  mean  to  allow  its  discussion.  Every  thing  which 
clashes  with  it,  or  tends  to  weaken  it,  must  go  under. 
Our  large  German  population  is  hostile  to  it.  About  all 
these  Dutchmen  would  be  not  only  Unionists,  but  Black 
Republicans,  if  they  dared." 

Perhaps  it  is  the  invariable  law  of  revolutions  that, 
even  while  the  revolters  are  in  a  numerical  minori 
ty,  they  are  able  to  carry  the  majority  with  them. 
It  is  certain  that,  before  Sumter  was  fired  on,  a  majority 
in  every  State,  except  South  Carolina,  was  opposed  to 
Secession.  The  constant  predictions  of  the  Rebel  leaders 
that  there  would  be  no  war,  and  the  assertions  of  promi 
nent  New  York  journals,  that  any  attempt  at  coercion  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  would  be  met  with  armed 
and  bloody  resistance  in  every  northern  city  and  State, 
were  the  two  chief  causes  of  the  apparent  unanimity  of 
the  South. 

The  masses  had  a  vague  but  very  earnest  belief  that 
the  North,  in  some  incomprehensible  manner,  had  done 
them  deadly  wrong.  Cassio-like,  they  remembered  "a 
mass  of  things,  but  nothing  distinctly ;  a  quarrel,  but 
nothing  wherefore."  The  leaders  were  sometimes  more 
specific. 

"The  South,"  said  a  pungent  writer,  "has  endured 
a  great  many  wrongs  ;  but  the  most  intolerable  of  all  the 
grievances  ever  thrust  upon  her  was  the  Census  Report 
of  1860!"  There  was  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  this 
remark.  One  day  I  asked  my  New  Orleans  friend  : 

"  Why  have  you  raised  all  this  tempest  about  Mr. 
Lincoln's  election  ?" 

"  Don't  deceive  yourself,"  he  answered.     "  Mr.  Lin- 


1861.]       FUNDAMENTAL  GRIEVANCE  OF  THE  REBELS.        93 

coin's  election  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  beyond 
enabling  us  to  rouse  our  people.  Had  Douglas  been 
chosen,  we  should  have  broken  up  the  Union  just  as 
quickly.  Had  Bell  triumphed,  it  would  have  been  all 
the  same.  Even  if  Breckinridge  had  been  elected,  we 
would  have  seceded  before  the  close  of  his  term. 
There  is  an  essential  incompatibility  between  the  two 
sections.  TJie  South  stands  still,  while  the  North  has 
grown  rich  and  powerful,  and  expanded  from  ocean  to 


ocean" 


This  was  the  fundamental  grievance.  Yery  liberal  in 
his  general  views,  he  had  not  apparently  the  faintest 
suspicion  that  Slavery  was  responsible  for  the  decadence 
of  the  South,  or  that  Freedom  impelled  the  gigantic 
strides  of  the  North. 

Yet  his  theory  of  the  Rebellion  was  doubtless 
correct.  It  arose  from  no  man,  or  party,  or  political 
event,  but  from  the  inherent  quarrel  between  two 
adverse  systems,  which  the  fullness  of  time  had  ripened 
into  open  warfare.  His  "  essential  incompatibility"  was 
only  another  name  for  Mr.  Seward's  "Irrepressible  Con 
flict"  between  two  principles.  They  have  since  re 
corded,  in  letters  of  blood,  not  merely  their  incompati 
bility,  but  their  absolute,  aggressive,  eternal  antagonism. 

During  the  second  week  in  April,  I  began  to  find 
myself  the  object  of  unpleasant,  not  to  say  impertinent, 
curiosity.  So  many  questions  were  asked,  so  many 
pointed  and  significant  remarks  made  in  my  presence,  as 
to  render  it  certain  that  I  was  regarded  with  peculiar  sus 
picion. 

At  first  I  was  at  a  loss  to  surmise  its  origin.  But  one 
day  I  encountered  an  old  acquaintance  in  the  form  of  a 
son  of  Abraham,  who  had  frequently  heard  me,  in  public 
addresses  in  Kansas,  utter  sentiments  not  absolutely  pro- 


94         SUDDEN  DEPARTURE  FROM  NEW  ORLEANS. 

slavery ;  who  knew  that  I  once  held  a  modest  commission 
in  the  Free  State  army,  and  that  I  was  a  whilom  corre 
spondent  of  The  Tribune. 

He  was  by  no  means  an  Israelite  without  guile,  for  he 
had  been  chased  out  of  the  Pike's  Peak  region  during  the 
previous  summer,  for  robbing  one  of  my  friends  who  had 
nursed  him  in  sickness.  Concluding  that  he  might 
play  the  informer,  I  made  an  engagement  with  him  for 
the  next  afternoon,  and,  before  the  time  arrived,  shook 
from  my  feet  the  dust  of  New  Orleans.  Designing  to 
make  a  detour  to  Fort  Pickens  on  my  way,  I  procured  ,a 
ticket  for  Washington.  The  sea  was  the  safer  route,  but 
I  was  curious  to  take  a  final  look  at  the  interior. 

On  Friday  evening,  April  12th,  I  left  the  Crescent  City. 
In  five  minutes  our  train  plunged  into  the  great  swamp 
which  environs  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  South 
west.  Deep,  broad  ditches  are  cut  for  draining,  and  you 
sometimes  see  an  alligator,  five  or  six  feet  long,  and 
as  large  as  the  body  of  a  man,  lying  lazily  upon  the  edge 
of  the  green  water. 

The  marshy  ground  is  mottled  with  gorgeous  flowers, 
and  the  palmetto  is  very  abundant.  It  does  not  here 
attain  to  the  dignity  of  a  tree,  seldom  growing  more  than 
four  feet  high.  Its  flag,  sword-shaped  leaves  branch  out 
in  flat  semicircular  clusters,  resembling  the  fan  palm. 
Its  tough  bulbous  root  was  formerly  cut  into  fine  frag 
ments  by  the  Indians,  then  bruised  to  a  pulp  and  thrown 
into  the  lake.  It  produced  temporary  blindness  among 
the  fishes,  which  brought  them  to  the  surface,  where  they 
were  easily  caught  by  hand. 

With  rare  fitness  stands  the  palmetto  as  the  device  of 
South  Carolina.  Indeed,  it  is  an  excellent  emblem  of 
Slavery  itself ;  for,  neither  beautiful,  edible,  nor  useful,  it- 
blinds  the  short-sighted  fish  coming  under  its  influence. 


1861.]  THE  WAR  SPIRIT  IN  MOBILE.  95 

To  them  it  is 


-"  The  insane  root, 


Which  takes  the  reason  prisoner." 

A  ride  of  four  miles  brought  us  to  Lake  Pontchartrain, 
stretcliing  away  in  the  fading  sunlight.  Over  the  broad 
expanse  of  swelling  water,  delicate,  foamy  white  caps 
were  cresting  the  waves. 

We  were  transferred  to  the  propeller  Alabama,  and, 
when  I  woke  the  next  morning,  were  lying  at  Mobile. 
With  a  population  of  thirty  thousand,  the  city  contains 
many  pleasant  residences,  embowered  in  shade-trees,  and 
surrounded  by  generous  grounds.  It  is  rendered  attrac 
tive  by  its  tall  pines,  live  oak,  and  Pride-of- China  trees. 
The  last  were  now  decked  in  a  profusion  of  bluish- 
white  blossoms. 

The  war  spirit  ran  high.  Hand-bills,  headed  "Sol 
diers  wanted,"  and  "Ho!  for  volunteers,"  met  the 
eye  at  every  corner ;  uniforms  and  arms  abounded,  and 
the  voice  of  the  bugle  was  heard  in  the  streets.  All 
northern  vessels  were  clearing  on  account  of  the  impend 
ing  crisis,  though  some  were  not  more  than  half  loaded. 

Mobile  was  very  radical.  One  of  the  daily  papers 
urged  the  imposition  of  a  tax  of  one  dollar  per  copy  upon 
every  northern  newspaper  or  magazine  brought  into  the 
Confederacy ! 

The  leading  hotel  was  crowded  with  guests,  including 
many  soldiers  en  route  for  Bragg' s  army.  It  was  my 
own  design  to  leave  for  Pensacola  that  evening,  and  look 
at  the  possible  scene  of  early  hostilities.  A  Secession 
friend  in  New  Orleans  had  given  me  a  personal  letter  to 
General  Bragg,  introducing  me  as  a  gentleman  of  leisure, 
who  would  be  glad  to  make  a  few  sketches  of  proper 
objects  of  interest  about  his  camps,  for  one  of  the  New 
York  illustrated  papers.  It  added  that  he  had  known 


96     SUSPICIONS  AROUSED — AN  AWKWARD  ENCOUNTER,  [isei. 

me  all  his  life,  and  vouched  completely  for  my  "  sound 
ness." 

But  a  little  incident  changed  my  determination.  Among 
my  fellow-passengers  from  New  Orleans  were  three  young 
officers  of  the  Confederate  army,  also  "bound  for  Fort 
Pickens.  While  on  the  steamer,  I  did  not  observe  that  I 
was  an  object  of  their  special  attention ;  but  just  after 
breakfast  this  morning,  as  I  was  going  up  to  my  room,  in 
the  fourth  story  of  the  Battle  House,  I  encountered  them 
also  ascending  the  broad  stairs.  The  moment  they  saw 
me,  they  dropped  the  subject  upon  which  they  were  con 
versing,  and  one,  with  significant  glances,  burst  into  a 
most  violent  invective  against  The  Tribune,  denouncing 
it  as  the  vilest  journal  in  America,  except  Parson  Brown- 
low's  Knoxmlle  Whig!  pronouncing  every  man  con 
nected  with  it  a  thief  and  scoundrel,  and  asserting  that  if 
any  of  its  correspondents  could  be  caught  here,  they 
would  be  hung  upon  the  nearest  tree. 

This  philippic  was  so  evidently  inspired  by  my  pres 
ence,  and  the  eyes  of  the  whole  group  glared  with  a  spec 
ulation  so  unpleasant,  that  I  felt  myself  an  unhappy 
Romeo,  4 '  too  early  seen  unknown  and  known  too  late. ' ' 
I  had  learned  by  experience  that  the  best  protection  for  a 
suspected  man  was  to  go  everywhere,  as  if  he  had  a  right 
to  go ;  to  brave  scrutiny ;  to  return  stare  for  stare  and 
question  for  question. 

So,  during  this  tirade,  which  lasted  while,  side  by  side, 
we  leisurely  climbed  two  staircases,  I  strove  to  main 
tain  an  exterior  of  serene  and  wooden  unconsciousness. 
When  the  speaker  had  exhausted  his  vocabulary  of  hard 
words,  I  drew  a  fresh  cigar  from  my  pocket,  and  said  to 
him,  "  Please  to  give  me  a  light,  sir."  With  a  puzzled 
air  he  took  his  cigar  from  his  mouth,  knocked  off  the 
ashes  with  his  forefinger,  handed  it  to  rne,  and  stood  re- 


18C1.]  "  MASS'R,  FORT    SUMTEII'S    GONE   UP !"  97 

garding  me  a  little  curiously,  while,  looking  him  full  in 
the  face,  I  slowly  ignited  my  own  Havana,  returned  his, 
and  thanked  him. 

They  turned  away  apparently  convinced  that  their 
zeal  had  outrun  their  discretion.  The  look  of  blank 
disappointment  and  perplexity  upon  the  faces  of  those 
young  officers  as  they  disappeared  in  the  passage  will  be, 
to  me,  a  joy  forever. 

Pondering  in  my  room  upon  fresh  intelligence  of  the 
arrest  of  suspicious  persons  in  General  Bragg' s  camp, 
and  upon  this  little  experience,  I  changed  my  plan.  As 
Toodles,  in  the  farce,  thinks  he  "  won't  smoke,"  so  I 
decided  not  to  go  to  Pensacola ;  but  ordered  a  carriage, 
and  drove  down  to  the  mail-boat  St.  Charles,  which  was 
to  leave  for  Montgomery  that  evening. 

I  fully  expected  during  the  afternoon  to  entertain  a 
vigilance  committee,  the  police,  or  some  military  officials 
who  would  invite  me  to  look  at  Secession  through  prison 
bars.  It  was  not  an  inviting  prospect ;  yet  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  to  wait. 

The  weather  was  dreamy  and  delicious.  My  state-room 
looked  out  upon  the  shining  river,  and  the  rich  olive  green 
of  the  grassy  shore.  Upon  the  dull,  opaque  water  of  a 
broad  bayou  beyond,  little  snowy  sails  flashed,  and  a 
steamer,  with  tall  black  chimneys,  left  a  white,  foamy 
track  in  the  waters,  and  long  clouds  of  brown  smoke 
against  the  sky. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  while  I  was  lying  in 
my  state-room,  looking  out  drowsily  upon  this  picture,  a 
cabin-boy  presented  his  sooty  face  at  the  door  and  said, 
"Mass'r,  Fort  Sumter's  gone  up  !" 

The  intelligence  had  just  arrived  by  telegraph.  The 
first  battle  of  the  Great  War  was  over,  and  seventy-two 
men,  after  a  bombardment  of  two  days,  were  captured 


08  BELLS  RINGING  AND  CANNONS  BOOMING. 

"by  twelve  tliousand !  In  a  moment  church  and  steam 
boat  bells  rang  out  their  notes  of  triumph,  and  cannon 
belched  forth  their  deep-mouthed  exultation.  A  public 
meeting  was  extemporized  in  the  street,  and  enthusiastic 
speeches  were  made.  Mindful  of  my  morning  experi 
ence,  I  did  not  leave  the  boat,  but  tried  to  read  the  mo 
mentous  Future.  I  thought  I  could  see,  in  its  early 
pages,  the  death-warrant  of  Slavery ;  but  all  else  was 
inscrutable. 

There  was  a  steam  calliope  attached  to  the  "St. 
Charles."  That  evening,  when  the  last  bell  had  rung, 
and  the  last  cable  was  taken  in,  she  left  the  Mobile  land 
ing,  and  plowed  slowly  up  the  river  to  the  shrill  notes  of 
" Dixie's  Land." * 

The  Alabama  is  the  "most  monotonously  beautiful  of 
rivers."  In  the  evening  twilight,  its  sinuous  sweep  af 
forded  a  fine  view  of  both  shores,  timbered  down  to  the 
water' s  edge.  Dense  foliage,  decked  in  the  blended  and 
intermingled  hues  of  summer,  gave  them  the  appearance 
of  two  soft,  smooth  cushions  of  variegated  velvet. 

After  dark,  we  met  the  descending  mail-boat.  Our 
calliope  saluted  her  with  lively  music,  and  the  passen 
gers  assembled  on  the  guards,  greeting  each  other  with 
the  usual  huzzas  and  waving  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs. 

*  Dixie's  Land  is  a  synonym  for  heaven.  It  appears  that  there  was 
once  a  good  planter  named  Dixie,  who  died  at  some  period  unknown,  to 
the  intense  grief  of  his  animated  property.  They  found  expression  for 
their  sorrow  in  song,  and  consoled  themselves  by  clamoring  in  verse  for 
their  removal  to  the  land  to  which  Dixie  had  departed,  and  where 
probably  the  renewed  spirit  would  be  greatly  surprised  to  find  himself  in 
their  company.  Whether  they  were  ill  treated  after  he  died,  and  thus 
had  reason  to  deplore  his  removal,  or  merely  desired  heaven  in  the 
abstract,  nothing  known  enables  me  to  assert.  But  Dixie's  Land  is  now 
generally  taken  to  be  the  Seceded  States,  where  Mr.  Dixie  certainly  is 
not  at  the  present  writing. — RuaselVs  Diary  in  America. 


i8Gi.]  A  TERPSICHORE  AN  YOUNG  NEGRO.  99 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  inevitable  calliope  awoke  us 
—this  time,  with  sacred  music.  At  many  river  landings 
there  was  only  a  single  well-shaded  farm-house  on  the 
bank,  with  ladies  sitting  upon  the  piazzas,  and  white  and 
negro  children  playing  under  the  magnificent  live-oaks. 
At  others,  a  solitary  warehouse  stood  upon  the  high, 
perpendicular  bluff,  with  an  inclined-plane  railway  for 
the  conveyance  of  freight  to  the  water.  At  some  points 
the  country  was  open,  and  a  great  cotton-field  extended 
to  the  river-bank,  with  a  weather-beaten  cotton-press  in 
the  midst  of  it,  like  an  old  northern  cider-mill. 

Planters,  returning  from  New  Orleans  and  Mobile, 
were  met  at  the  landings  by  their  negroes.  The  slaves 
appeared  glad  to  see  them,  and  were  greeted  with  hearty 
hand- shakings.  At  one  landing  the  calliope  struck  up  a 
lively  strain,  and  a  young  darkey  on  the  bank,  with  the 
Terpsichorean  proclivity  of  his  race,  began  to  dance  as  if 
for  dear  life,  throwing  his  arms  and  legs  in  ludicrous 
and  extravagant  fashion.  His  master  attempted  to  cuff 
his  ears,  but  the  little  fellow  ducked  his  head  and 
danced  away,  to  the  great  merriment  of  the  lookers-on. 
The  negro  nurses  on  the  boat  fondled  and  kissed  the  lit 
tle  white  children  in  their  charge  most  ardently. 

I  saw  no  instance  of  unkind  treatment  to  slaves  ;  but 
a  young  planter  on  board  mentioned  to  me,  as  a  note 
worthy  circumstance,  that  he  had  not  permitted  a  negro 
to  be  struck  upon  his  plantation  for  a  year. 

A  Texian  on  board  the  boat  was  very  bitter  against 
Governor  Houston,  and,  with  the  usual  extreme  lan 
guage  of  the  Rebels,  declared  he  would  be  hanged  if  he 
persisted  in  opposing  the  Disunionists.  An  old  citizen  of 
Louisiana,  too,  became  so  indignant  at  me  for  remarking 
I  had  always  supposed  Douglas  to  sympathize  with  the 
South,  that  I  made  haste  to  qualify  the  assertion. 


100       LEADING  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  SOUTHERNERS, 

Our  passengers  were  excellent  specimens  of  the  bet 
ter  class  of  southerners.  Aside  from  his  negrophobia, 
the  southern  gentleman  is  an  agreeable  companion.  He 
is  genial,  frank,  cordial,  profoundly  deferential  to  wo 
men,  and  carries  his  heart  in  his  hand.  His  social 
qualities  are  his  weak  point.  To  a  northerner,  passing 
through  his  country  during  these  disjointed  times,  I 
would  have  said  : 

"Your  best  protection  is  to  be  'hail  fellow,  well 
met;'  spend  money  freely,  tell  good  stories,  be  liberal 
of  your  private  brandy-flask,  and  your  after-dinner 
cigars.  If  you  do  this,  and  your  manners  are,  in  his 
thinking,  gentlemanly,  he  can  by  no  means  imagine  you 
a  Yankee  in  the  offensive  sense.  He  pictures  all  Yan 
kees  as  puritanic,  rigid,  fanatical,  and  talking  through 
the  nose.  '  What  the  world  wants,'  says  George  Wil 
liam  Curtis,  '  is  not  honesty,  but  acquiescence.'  That  is 
profoundly  true  here.  Acquiesce  gracefully,  not  intem- 
perately,  in  the  prevailing  sentiment.  Don't  hail  from 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  ;  don't  'guess,'  or  use  other 
northern  provincialisms  ;  don't  make  yourself  conspicu 
ous — and,  if  you  know  human  nature,  you  may  pass 
without  serious  trouble." 

Our  southerner  has  little  humanity — he  feels  little 
sympathy  for  a  man,  as  a  man — as  a  mere  human 
being — but  he  has  abundant  warmth  toward  his  own 
social  class.  Not  a  very  high  specimen  himself,  he  yet 
lays  infinite  stress  upon  being  "  a  gentleman."  If  you 
have  the  misfortune  to  be  poor,  and  without  credentials, 
but  possess  the  manners  of  education  and  good  society, 
he  will  give  you  kinder  reception  than  you  are  likely 
to  obtain  in  the  bustling,  restless,  crowded  North. 

He  affects  long  hair,  dresses  in  unqualified  black, 
and  wears  kid  gloves  continually.  He  pronounces 


i8Gi.]  SOUTHERN  PROVINCIALISMS.  101 

iron  "i-ron"  (two  syllables),  and  barrel  "barl."  He 
calls  car  ukyah"  (one  syllable),  cigar  use-ghah,"  and 
negro  "  nig-To  "  —never  negro,  and  very  rarely  u  nig 
ger."  The  latter,  by  the  way,  was  a  pet  word  with  Sen 
ator  Douglas.  Once,  while  his  star  was  in  the  ascend 
ant,  some  one  asked  Mr.  Seward : 

"  Will  Judge  Douglas  ever  be  President  ?" 

"No,  sir,"  replied  the  New  York  senator.  "  No  man 
will  ever  be  President  of  the  United  States  who  spells 
negro  with  two  g's  !" 

These  southern  provincialisms  are  sometimes  a  little 
startling.  Conversing  with  a  young  man  in  the  senior 
class  of  a  Mississippi  college,  I  remarked  that  men  were 
seldom  found  in  any  circle  who  had  not  some  sympathy 
or  affinity  with  it,  to  stimulate  them  to  seek  it.  "Yes," 
he  replied,  ' '  something  to  aig  them  on  /' ' 

The  forests  along  the  river  were  beautiful  with  the 
brilliant  green  live-oak  festooned  with  mistletoe,  the 
dark  pine,  the  dense  cane,  the  spring  glory  of  the  cotton- 
wood  and  maple,  the  drooping  delicate  leaves  of  the 
•willow,  the  white- stemmed  sycamore  with  its  creamy 
foliage,  and  the  great  snowy  blossoms  of  the  dog-wood. 

With  a  calliope,  familiarity  breeds  contempt.  Ours 
became  an  intolerable  nuisance,  and  induced  frequent 
discussions  about  bribing  the  player  to  stop  it.  He  was 
apparently  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  Parisian  who 
set  a  hand-organ  to  running  by  clockwork  in  his  room, 
locked  the  apartment,  went  to  the  country  for  a  month, 
and,  when  he  returned,  found  that  two  obnoxious  neigh 
bors,  whom  he  wished  to  drive  away,  had  blown  out 
their  brains  in  utter  despair. 

While  I  was  pleasantly  engaged  in  a  whist-party  in 
the  cabin,  this  fragment  of  a  conversation  between  two 
bystanders  reached  my  ears  : 


102         CONFEDERATE  CAPITOL  AT  MONTGOMERY. 

"A  spy?" 

"  Yes,  a  spy  from  the  North,  looking  about  to  obtain, 
information  for  old  Lincoln  ;  and  they  arrested  one  yes 
terday,  too." 

This  was  a  pleasing  theme  of  reflection  for  the  timid 
and  contemplative  mind.  A  passenger  explained  the 
matter,  by  informing  me  that,  at  one  of  the  landings 
where  we  stopped,  telegraphic  intelligence  was  received 
of  the  arrest  of  two  spies  at  Montgomery.  The  popular 
impression  seemed  to  be,  that  about  one  person  in  ten 
was  engaged  in  that  not- very-fascinating  avocation  ! 

In  Indian  dialect,  Alabama  signifies,  "  Here  we  rest ;" 
but,  for  me,  it  had  an  exactly  opposite  meaning.  We 
awoke  one  morning  to  find  our  boat  lying  at  Mont 
gomery.  Reaching  the  hotel  too  early  for  breakfast,  I 
strolled  with  a  traveler  from  Philadelphia,  a  pretended 
Secessionist,  to  the  State  House,  which  was  at  present 
also  the  Capitol  of  the  Confederacy. 

Standing,  like  the  Capitol  in  Washington,  at  the  head 
of  a  broad  thoroughfare,  it  overlooks  a  pleasant  city 
of  eight  thousand  people.  The  building  is  of  stucco, 
and  bears  that  melancholy  suggestion  of  better  days 
which  seems  inseparable  from  the  Peculiar  Institution. 

The  senate  chamber  is  a  small,  dingy  apartment,  on 
whose  dirty  walls  hang  portraits  of  Clay,  Calhoun,  and 
two  or  three  Alabama  politicians.  The  desks  and  chairs 
were  covered  with  antiquated  public  documents,  and 
the  other  debris  of  legislative  halls.  While  returning  to. 
the  hotel,  we  heard  from  a  street  loafer  a  terse  descrip 
tion  of  some  model  slave  : 

"  He  is  just  the  best  nigger  in  this  town.     He  knows 
enough  to  work  well,  and  he  knows  nothing  else." 

We  were  also  informed  that  the  Virginia  Convention 
had  passed  a  Secession  ordinance. 


1861.]    "COPPERAS  BREECHES"  vs.  "BLACK  BREECHES."  103 

"  This  is  capital  news  ;  is  it  not?"  said  my  Philadel 
phia  companion,  with  well-assumed  glee. 

For  several  days,  in  spite  of  his  violent  assertions,  I 
had  doubted  his  sincerity.  This  was  the  first  time  he 
"broached  the  subject  when  no  one  else  was  present.  I 
looked  steadily  in  his  eye,  and  inquired  : 

"  Do  you  think  so?" 

His  half-quizzical  expression  was  a  satisfactory 
answer,  even  without  the  reply  : 

"  I  want  to  get  home  to  Philadelphia  without  being 
detained  on  the  way." 

In  the  hotel  office,  two  well-dressed  southerners  were 
discussing  the  omnipresent  topic.  One  of  them  said  : 

"  We  shall  have  no  war." 

"  Yes,  we  shall,"  replied  the  other.  "The  Yankees 
are  going  to  fight  for  a  while  ;  but  it  will  make  no  dif 
ference  to  us.  We  have  got  copperas  breeches  enough 
to  carry  this  war  through.  None  of  the  black  breeches 
will  have  to  shoulder  muskets  !" 

The  reader  should  understand  that  the  clothing  of 
the  working  whites  was  colored  with  a  dye  in  which 
copperas  was  the  chief  ingredient ;  while,  of  course,  the 
upper,  slaveholding  classes,  wore  "  customary  suits  of 
solemn  black."  This  was  a  very  pregnant  sentence,  con 
veying  in  a  few  words  the  belief  of  those  Rebels  who 
instigated  and  impelled  the  war. 

The  morning  newspapers,  at  our  breakfast-table,  de 
tailed  two  interesting  facts.  First,  that  "  Jasper,"*  the 

*  This  gentleman  went  to  Charleston  openly  for  The  Times,  and  con 
stantly  insisted  that  a  candid  and  truthful  correspondent  of  any  northern, 
paper  could  travel  through  the  South  without  serious  difficulty.  He 
was  daily  declaring  that  the  devil  was  not  so  black  as  he  is  painted, 
denying  charges  brought  against  Charlestonians  by  the  northern  press, 
and  sometimes  evidently  straining  a  point  in  his  own  convictions  to 


104  A  CORRESPONDENT  IN  DURANCE  VILE.          [ISGI. 

Charleston  correspondent  of  The  New  York  Times,  had 
been  seized  and  imprisoned  in  the  Palmetto  City.  Sec 
ond,  that  Gen.  Bragg  had  arrested  in  his  camp,  and 
sent  under  guard  to  Montgomery,  "  as  a  prisoner  of 
war,"  the  correspondent  of  TJie  Pensacola  (Fla.)  Ob 
server.  This  journalist  was  an  enthusiastic  Secessionist, 
but  had  been  guilty  of  some  indiscretion  in  publishing 
facts  touching  the  strength  and  designs  of  the  Rebel 
army.  His  signature  was  "Nemo;"  and  he  now  bade 
fair  to  be  ]NTo  One,  indeed,  for  some  time  to  come. 

say  a  kind  word  for  them.  But,  during  the  storming  of  Sumter,  he 
was  suddenly  arrested,  robbed,  and  imprisoned  in  a  filthy  cell  for  sev 
eral  days.  He  was  at  last  permitted  to  go;  but  the  mob  had  become 
excited  against  him,  and  with  difficulty  he  escaped  with  his  life.  STo 
other  correspondent  was  subjected  to  such  gross  indignities.  "Jasper" 
reached  Washington,  having  obtained  a  good  deal  of  new  and  valuable 
information  about  South  Carolina  character. 


isci.]          EFFECT  OF  CAPTUIUNG  FORT  SUMTER.  105 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

I  reckon  this  always,  that  a  man  is  never  undone  until  he  be  hanged. — 

Two  GENTLEMEN  OF  VERONA. 

I  NOW  "began  to  entertain  sentiments  of  profound 
gratitude  toward  the  young  officer,  at  Mobile,  who  kept 
me  from  going  to  Fort  Pickens.  Rejecting  the  tempting 
request  of  my  Philadelphia  companion  to  remain  one 
day  in  Montgomery,  that  he  might  introduce  me  to 
Jefferson  Davis,  I  continued  my  "Journey  Due  North." 

When  we  reached  the  cars,  my  baggage  was  missing. 
The  omnibus  agent,  who  was  originally  a  New  Yorker, 
and  probably  thought  it  precarious  for  a  man  desiring  to 
reach  Washington  to  be  detained,  even  a  few  hours, 
kindly  induced  the  conductor  to  detain  the  train  for  five 
minutes  while  we  drove  back  to  the  Exchange  Hotel  and 
found  the  missing  valise.  The  event  proved  that  delay 
would  have  been  embarrassing,  if  not  perilous. 

A  Georgian  on  the  car-seat  with  me,  while  very  care 
ful  not  to  let  others  overhear  his  remarks,  freely  avowed 
Union  sentiments,  and  asserted  that  they  were  predom 
inant  among  his  neighbors.  I  longed  to  respond  ear 
nestly  and  sincerely,  but  there  was  the  possibility  of  a 
trap,  and  I  merely  acquiesced. 

The  country  was  intoxicated  by  the  capture  of  Sum- 
ter.  A  newspaper  on  the  train,  several  days  old,  in  its 
regular  Associated  Press  report,  contained  the  following : 

MONTGOMERY,  Ala.,  Friday,  April  12, 1861. 

An  immense  crowd  serenaded  President  Davis  and  Mr.  Walker,  Sec 
retary  of  War,  at  the  Exchange  Hotel  to-night.  The  former  was  not 


106  WASHINGTON  TO  BE  CAPTURED.  [ISGI. 

well,  and  did  not  appear.  Secretary  Walker,  in  a  few  words  of  electrical 
eloquence,  told  the  news  from  Fort  Sumter,  declaring,  in  conclusion,  that 
before  many  hours  the  flag  of  the  Confederacy  would  float  over  that  fort 
ress.  !N"o  man,  he  said,  could  tell  where  the  war  this  day  commenced 
would  end,  hut  he  would  prophesy  that  the  flag  which  here  streams  to 
the  breeze  would  float  over  the  dome  of  the  old  Capitol  at  Washington 
before  the  first  of  May.  Let  them  test  Southern  courage  and  resources, 
and  it  might  float  eventually  over  Faneuil  Hall  itself. 

An  officer  from  General  Bragg' s  camp  informed  me 
that  all  preparations  for  capturing  Fort  Pickens  were 
made,  the  United  States  sentinels  on  duty  upon  a  certain 
night  being  bribed;  but  that  " Nemo's"  intimation  of 
the  intended  attack  frustrated  it,  a  copy  of  his  letter 
having  found  its  way  into  the  post,  and  forewarned  and 
forearmed  the  commander. 

Everybody  was  looking  anxiously  for  news  from  the 
North.  The  predictions  of  certain  New  York  papers, 
that  the  northern  people  would  inaugurate  war  at  home 
if  the  Government  attempted  ''coercion,"  were  received 
with  entire  credulity,  and  frequently  quoted. 

There  was  much  admiration  of  Major  Anderson's 
defense  of  Sumter  ;  but  the  opinion  was  general,  that 
only  a  military  sense  of  honor  dictated  his  conduct ;  that 
now,  relieved  from  a  soldier's  responsibility,  he  would 
resign  and  join  the  Rebels.  "He  is  too  brave  a  man  to 
remain  with  the  Yankees,"  was  the  common  remark. 
Far  in  the  interior  of  Georgia,  I  saw  fragments  of  his 
flag- staff  exhibited,  and  highly  prized  as  relics. 

We  dined  at  the  little  hamlet  of  West  Point,  on  the 
line  between  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and  stopped  for  two 
evening  hours  at  the  bustling  city  of  Atlanta.  Our  stay 
was  enlivened  by  a  fresh  conversation  in  the  car  about 
northern  spies  and  reporters,  who  were  declared  to  be 
infesting  the  country,  and  worthy  of  hanging  wherever 
found. 


1861.]      APPREHENSION  ABOUT  ARMING  THE  NEGROES.      107 

We  spent  the  night  in  pursuit  of  sleep  under  difficul 
ties,  upon  a  rough  Georgia  railway.  The  next  morning, 
the  scantiness  of  the  disappearing  foliage  indicated  that 
we  were  going  northward.  In  Augusta,  we  passed 
through  broad,  pleasant  shaded  streets,  and  then  crossed 
the  Savannah  river  into  South  Carolina.  Companies  of 
troops,  bound  for  Charleston,  began  to  come  on  board 
the  train,  and  were  greeted  with  cheering  at  all  the 
stations.  A  young  Carolinian,  taking  me  for  a  south 
erner,  remarked : 

"The  only  thing  we  fear  in  this  war  is  that  the 
Yankees  will  arm  our  slaves  and  turn  them  against  us." 

This  was  the  first  statement  of  the  kind  I  heard. 
Persons  had  said  many  times  in  my  presence  that  they 
were  perfectly  sure  of  the  slaves — who  would  all  fight 
for  their  masters.  In  the  last  article  of  faith  they  proved 
as  deluded  as  those  sanguine  northerners  who  believed 
that  slave  insurrections  would  everywhere  immediately 
result  from  hostilities. 

At  Lee's  Station  we  met  the  morning  train  from 
Charleston.  Within  two  yards  of  my  window,  I  saw  a 
dark  object  disappear  under  the  cow-catcher  ;  and  a 
moment  after,  a  woman,  wringing  her  hands,  shrieked  : 

"  My  God  !  My  God  !  Mr.  Lee  killed  !" 

Lying  on  the  track  was  a  shapeless,  gory  mass, 
which  only  the  clothing  showed  to  be  the  remains  of  a 
human  being.  The  station-keeper,  attempting  to  cross 
the  road  just  in  advance  of  the  train,  was  struck  down 
and  run  over.  His  little  son  was  standing  beside  him  at 
the  very  moment,  and  two  of  his  daughters  looking  on 
from  the  door  of  his  residence,  a  few  yards  away.  In 
the  first  bewilderment  of  terror,  they  now  stood  wildly 
beating  their  foreheads,  and  gasping  for  breath.  In 
strange  contrast  with  this  scene,  a  martial  band  was 


108          LOOKING  AT  THE  CAPTURED  FORTRESS.         [ISGI. 

discoursing  lively  music,  and  people  were  loudly 
cheering  the  soldiers.  Buoyant  Life  and  grim  Death 
stood  side  by  side  and  walked  hand  in  hand. 

Our  train  plunged  into  deep  pine  woods,  and  wended 
through  large  plantations,  whose  cool  frame  houses 
were  shaded  by  palmetto-trees.  The  negro  men  and 
women,  who  stood  in  the  fields  persuading  themselves 
that  they  were  working,  handled  their  hoes  with  inde 
scribable  awkwardness.  A  sketch  of  their  exact  posi 
tions  would  look  ridiculously  unnatural.  They  were  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  zeal  and  activity  of  the  north 
ern  laborer,  who  moves  under  the  stimulus  of  freedom. 

In  the  afternoon,  we  passed  through  the  Magnolia 
Cemetery,  and  in  view  of  the  State  Arsenal,  with  the 
palmetto  flag  waving  over  it.  The  Mills'  House,  in 
Charleston,  was  crowded  with  guests  and  citizens,  half 
of  them  in  uniform.  After  I  registered  my  name,  a 
brawny  fellow,  with  a  ' '  plug-ugly' '  countenance,  looked 
over  my  shoulder  at  the  book,  and  then  regarded  me 
with  a  long,  impudent,  scrutinizing  stare,  which  I 
endeavored  to  return  with  interest.  In  a  few  seconds 
his  eyes  dropped,  and  he  went  back  to  his  seat. 

I  strolled  down  the  narrow  streets,  with  their  anti 
quated  houses,  to  the  pleasant  Battery,  where  several 
columbiads,  with  pyramidal  piles  of  solid  shot  between 
them,  pointed  at  Fort  Sumter.  Down  the  harbor,  among 
a  few  snow-white  sails,  stood  the  already  historic  fortress. 
The  line  of  broken  roof,  visible  above  the  walls,  was 
torn  and  ragged  from  Rebel  shots.  At  the  distance  of 
two  miles,  it  was  impossible,  with  the  naked  eye,  to 
identify  the  two  flags  above  it.  A  bystander  told  me 
that  they  were  the  colors  of  South  Carolina  and  of  the 
Confederacy. 

The  devices  of  treason  flaunting  in  the  breeze  where 


1861.]  A  SHORT  STAY  IN  CHARLESTON.  109 

the  Stars  and  Stripes,  after  being  insulted  for  months, 
were  so  lately  lowered  in  dishonor,  were  not  a  pleasant 
spectacle,  and  I  turned  slowly  and  sadly  back  to  the 
hotel.  In  its  reading-room,  among  the  four  or  five  papers 
on  file,  was  a  copy  of  Tlie  Tribune,  whose  familiar  face 
was  like  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

The  city  reeled  with  excitement.  In  the  evening 
martial  music  and  huzzas  came  floating  up  to  my  window 
from  a  meeting  at  the  Charleston  Hotel,  where  the  young 
Yirginian  Hotspur,  Roger  A.  Pryor,  was  one  of  the  prom 
inent  speakers.  Publicly  and  privately,  the  Charles- 
tonians  were  boasting  over  their  late  Cadmean  victory. 
They  had  not  heard  from  the  North. 

I  hoped  to  remain  several  days,  but  the  public  frenzy 
had  grown  so  uncontrollable,  that  every  stranger  was 
subjected  to  espionage.  One  could  hardly  pick  up  a 
newspaper  without  seeing,  or  stand  ten  minutes  in  a 
public  place  without  hearing,  of  the  arrest  of  some  north 
erner,  charged  with  being  a  spy.  While  the  lines  of 
retreat  were  yet  open,  it  was  judicious  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come. 

Designing  to  stop  for  a  while  in  North  Carolina, 
whose  Rip  Van  Winkle  sleep  seemed  proof  against  any 
possible  convulsion,  I  took  the  midnight  train  north 
ward.  A  number  of  Baltimoreans  on  board  were  re 
turning  home,  after  assisting  at  the  capture  of  Sumter. 
They  were  voluble  and  boisterous  Rebels,  declaring  in 
good  set  terms  that  Maryland  would  shortly  be  revolu 
tionized,  Governor  Hicks  and  Henry  Winter  Davis 
hanged,  and  President  Lincoln  driven  out  of  Washing 
ton.  They  averred  with  great  vehemence  and  iteration 
that  the  Yankees  were  all  cowards,  and  could  easily  be 
''whipped  out;"  but  when  one,  whose  denunciations 
had  been  peculiarly  bitter,  was  asked  : 


HO  THE  COUNTRY  ox  FIRE.  [isei. 

"  Are  you  going  home  through  Washington  1" 

"Not  I,"  was  the  reply  "  Old  Abe  might  have  us 
nabbed  !' 

We  were  soon  on  the  clayey  soil  of  the  Old  North 
State,  which,  to  the  eye,  closely  resembles  those  regions 
of  Ohio  near  Lake  Erie.  Hour  after  hour,  we  rode 
through  the  deep  forests  of  tall  pines,  from  which  the 
bark  had  been  stripped  for  making  rosin  and  turpentine. 

My  anticipations  of  quiet  proved  altogether  delusive. 
President  Lincoln's  Proclamation,  calling  for  seventy- 
five  thousand  soldiers,  had  just  arrived  by  telegraph, 
and  the  country  was  on  fire.  It  was  the  first  flush  of 
excitement  here,  and  the  feeling  was  more  intense  and 
demonstrative  than  in  those  States  which  had  become 
accustomed  to  the  Revolution.  Forts  were  being  seized, 
negroes  and  white  men  impressed  to  labor  upon  them, 
military  companies  forming,  clergymen  taking  up  the 
musket,  and  women  encouraging  the  determination  to 
fight  the  "  Abolitionists."  All  Union  sentiment  was 
awed  into  utter  silence. 

While  the  train  was  stopping  at  Wilmington,  a  tele 
gram,  announcing  that  Virginia  had  passed  a  Secession 
ordinance,  was  received  with  yells  of  applause.  Sitting 
alone  at  one  end  of  the  car,  I  observed  three  fellow- 
passengers,  with  whom  I  had  formed  a  traveling  ac 
quaintance,  conferring  earnestly.  Their  frequent  glances 
toward  me  indicated  the  subject  of  the  conversation.  As 
I  had  said  nothing  to  define  my  political  position,  I  re 
solved  to  set  myself  right  at  once,  should  they  put  me  to 
the  test.  One  of  them  approached  me,  and  remarked  : 

"  We  just  have  news  that  Virginia  has  seceded." 

I  replied,  with  considerable  emphasis  :  "  Good  !  That 
give  us  all  the  border  States." 

Apparently  satisfied,  he  returned  to  his  friends,  and 


1861.]  SUBMITTING  TO  REBEL  SCRUTINY.  Ill 

they  said  no  more  to  me  upon  the  all-absorbing  ques 
tion. 

A  fragment  of  conversation  which  occurred  near  me, 
will  illustrate  the  general  tone  of  remark.  A  young  man 
observed  to  a  gentleman  beside  him : 

"  We  shall  have  possession  of  Washington  before  the 
first  of  June." 

"Do  you  think  so?  Lincoln  is  going  to  call  out  an 
army  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men." 

t '  Oh,  well,  we  can  whip  them  out  any  morning  be 
fore  breakfast.  Throw  three  or  four  shells  among  those 
blue-bellied  Yankees  and  they  will  scatter  like  a  flock 
of  sheep!" 

Up  to  tli is  day  I  had  earnestly  hoped  that  a  bloody 
conflict  between  the  two  sections  might  be  averted ; 
but  these  remarks  were  so  frequent — the  opinion  that 
northerners  were  unmitigated  cowards  seemed  so  uni 
versal,'*  that  I  began  to  look  with  a  great  deal  of  com 
placency  upon  the  prospect  which  the  South  enjoyed 
of  testing  this  faith.  It  was  time  to  ascertain,  once  for 
all,  whether  these  gentlemen  of  the  cotton  and  the  cane- 
brake  were  indeed  a  superior  race,  destined  to  wield  the 
scepter,  or  whether  their  pretensions  were  mere  arro 
gance  and  swagger. 

It  seemed  impossible  for  the  southern  mind  to  com 
prehend  that  he  who  never  blusters,  or  flourishes  the 

*  Of  course  the  folly  was  not  all  on  one  side.  Fc\v  northerners,  up 
to  the  attack  on  Sumter,  thought  the  Rebels  would  do  any  thing  hut 
threaten.  And  long  after  this  error  was  exploded,  our  ahlest  journals 
were  fond  of  contrasting  the  resources  of  the  two  sections,  and 
demonstrating  therefrom,  with  mathematical  precision,  that  the  war 
could  not  last  long ;  that  the  superiority  of  the  North  in  men  and  money 
would  make  the  subjugation  of  the  South  a  short  and  easy  task.  But 
they  did  not  commit  the  egregious  blunder  of  imputing  cowardice  to  any 
class  of  native-born  Americans. 


112  THE  NORTH  HEARD  FROM.  [ISGI. 

bowie-knife,  who  will  endure  a  great  deal  "before  fight 
ing,  who  would  rather  suffer  a  wrong  than  do  a  wrong, 
is,  when  roused,  the  most  dangerous  of  adversaries— a 
fact  so  universal,  that  it  has  given  us  the  proverb, 
"  Beware  the  fury  of  a  patient  man." 

New  York  papers,  issued  after  receiving  intelligence 
of  the  fall  of  Sumter,  now  reached  us,  and  both  in  their 
news  and  editorial  columns  indicated  how  suddenly  that 
event  had  aroused  the  whole  North.  The  voice  of  every 
journal  was  for  war.  The  Herald,  which  one  morning 
spoke  bitterly  against  coercion,  received  a  visit  during 
the  day  from  several  thousand  tumultuous  citizens, 
who  left  it  the  alternative  of  running  up  the  American 
flag  or  having  its  office  torn  down.  By  the  presence 
of  the  police,  and  the  intercession  of  leading  Union  men, 
its  property  was  saved  from  destruction.  In  next  morn 
ing'  s  paper  appeared  one  of  its  periodical  and  constitu 
tional  somersaults.  Its  four  editorial  articles  all  cried 
"  War  to  the  knife  !" 

The  Rebels  were  greatly  surprised,  half  appalled,  and 
doubly  exasperated  at  the  unexpected  change  of  all  the 
northern  papers  which  they  had  counted  friendly  to  them  ; 
but  they  also  shouted  "War  !"  even  louder  than  before. 

At  Goldsboro,  where  we  stopped  for  supper,  a  small 
slab  of  marble,  standing  upon  the  mantel  in  the  hotel 
office,  had  these  words  upon  it : 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  A.  Lincoln,  who  died  of  a  broken  neck,  at 
Kewburn,  April  16,  1861." 

Before  the  train  started  again,  a  young  patriot,  whose 
articulation  was  impeded  by  whisky,  passed  through  it, 
asking : 

"  S'thr  any  -     -  Yankee  onth' strain  ?    F'thr's  a  — 
Union  man  board  these  cars,   Ic'nwhip  him  by  -    — . 
H'rahfr  Jeff.  Davis  nth' southrncnf drey  !"     He  afterward 


1861.]  AN  INEBRIATED  PATRIOT.  113 

amused  himself  by  firing  his  revolver  from  the  car  door. 
At  the  next  station  he  stepped  out  upon  the  platform, 
and  repeated  : 

"H'rah  fr  Jeff.  Davis  n'th'Southrn  Confdrcy  !" 

Another  patriot  among  the  bystanders  at  the  station 
promptly  responded  : 

"  Good.     Hurra  for  Jeff.  Davis  !" 

"  Yre  th'  man  fr  me,"  responded  our  passenger; 
"Come  'n'  takeadrink.  All  fr  Jeff.  Davis  here,  ain't 


"Yes,  sir." 

uThatsallrightth'n.  But  what  d'you  elect  that  -  — 
Abolitionist,  Murphy,  t'th'  Leg'slature  for?" 

"Pm  Murphy,"  replied  the  patriot,  who  had  been 
standing  in  the  group,  but  now  sprang  forward  bellige 
rently.  "  Who  calls  me  an  Abolitionist  ?" 

"Beg  y'r  padon  sr.  Eeck'n  you  ain't  the  man.  But 
who  is  that  Abolitionist  you  'lected  here?  's  name's 
Brown,  'sn't  it?  Yes,  that's  it.  --  Brown;  y'  ought 
t'hang  Mm  /" 

Just  then  the  whistle  shrieked  and  the  train  moved 
on,  amid  shouts  of  laughter. 

At  six  o'  clock  next  morning,  we  reached  Richmond. 
Here,  also,  I  had  hoped  to  stop,  but  the  caldron  was 
seething  too  hotly.  Rebel  flags  were  everywhere  flying, 
the  newspapers  all  exulted  over  the  passage  of  the  Se 
cession  ordinance,  and  some  of  them  warned  northerners 
and  Union  men  to  leave  the  country  forthwith.  The  tone 
of  conversation,  too,  was  very  bitter.  The  farther  I 
went,  the  intenser  the  frenzy  ;  and,  beginning  to  wonder 
whether  there  was  any  safe  haven  south  of  Philadelphia 
or  New  York,  I  continued  northward  without  a  moment's 
unnecessary  delay. 

The  railway  accommodations  grew  better  in  exact 


114  THE  OLD  DOMINION  IN  A  FRENZY.  [isei. 

ratio  to  our  approach  to  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and 
northern  physiognomies  were  numerous  on  the  train. 
At  Ashland,  a  few  miles  north  of  Richmond,  the  first 
palatable  meal  since  leaving  the  Alabama  River  was  set 
before  us.  All  the  intervening  distance,  to  the  epicu 
rean  eye,  stretched  out  in  a  dreary  perspective  of  bacon 
and  corn  bread. 

Half  the  passengers  were  soldiers.  Every  village 
bristled  with  bayonets.  At  Fredericksburgh,  one  of  the 
polished  F.  F.  Y.'s  on  the  platform  presented  his  face  at 
our  window,  and  asked  what  the  unmentionable-to-ears- 
polite  all  these  people  were  going  north  for?  As  the 
passengers  maintained  an  "  heroic  reticence,"  he  exploded 
a  fresh  oath,  and  went  to  the  next  car  to  pursue  his  in 
vestigations. 

A  citizen  of  Richmond,  who  occupied  the  seat  with 
me,  satisfied  that  I  was  sound  on  the  Secession  question, 
assured  me  that  it  had  been  very  difficult  to  get  the 
ordinance  through  the  Convention  ;  that  trouble  was 
anticipated  from  Union  men  in  Western  Virginia ;  that 
business  in  Richmond  was  utterly  suspended,  New 
York  exchange  commanding  a  premium  of  fifteen  per 
cent. 

"We  are  fearful,"  he  added,  " of  difficulty  with  our 
free  negroes.  There  are  several  thousand  in  Richmond, 
many  of  whom  are  intelligent,  and  some  wealthy.  They 
show  signs  of  turbulence,  and  we  are  perfecting  an  or 
ganization  to  hold  them  in  check.  I  sent  the  money  to 
New  York  this  morning  for  a  quantity  of  Sharp's  rifles, 
ordering  them  to  be  forwarded  in  dry-goods  boxes,  that 
they  might  not  excite  suspicion." 

He  added,  that  Ben  McCulloch  was  in  Virginia,  and 
had  perfected  a  plan  by  which,  at  the  head  of  Rebel 
troops,  he  was  about  to  capture  Washington.  As  we 


1861.]  THE  OLD  FLAG  ONCE  MORE.  115 

progressed  northward,  the  noisy  Secession  element  grew 
small  "by  degrees,  and  "beautifully  less.  At  Acquia  Creek, 
we  left  the  cars  and  took  a  steamer  up  the  Potomac. 

A  quiet  gentleman,  who  had  come  on  board  at  Rich 
mond,  impressed  me,  through  that  mysterious  free 
masonry  which  exists  among  journalists  —  indeed,  "be-* 
tween  members  of  all  professions — as  a  representative  of 
the  Fourth  Estate.  In  reply  to  inquiries,  he  informed 
me  that  he  had  been  reporting  the  Virginia  Convention 
for  The  Richmond  Enquirer,  but,  being  a  New  Yorker, 
had  concluded,  like  Jerry  Blossom,  he  wanted  "to  go 
home."  He  described  the  Convention,  which  at  first 
had  an  emphatic  majority  for  the  Government ;  but  in 
time,  one  Union  man  after  another  was  dragooned  into 
the  ranks,  until  a  bare  Secession  majority  was  obtained. 

The  ordinance  explicitly  provided  that  it  should  not 
take  effect  until  submitted  to  the  popular  vote  ;  but  the 
State  authorities  immediately  assumed  that  it  would  be 
ratified.  Senator  Mason  wrote  a  public  letter,  warning 
all  Union  men  to  leave  the  State  ;  and  before  the  time  for 
voting  arrived,  the  Secessionists  succeeded  in  inaugura 
ting  a  bloody  conflict  upon  the  soil,  and  bringing  in 
armies  from  the  Gulf  States.  It  was  then  ratified  by  a 
large  majority. 

We  steamed  up  the  Potomac,  passed  the  quiet  tomb 
at  Mount  Yernon,  which  was  soon  to  hear  the  clangor  of 
contending  armies,  and  early  in  the  afternoon  came  in 
sight  of  Washington.  There,  at  last,  thank  God  !  was 
the  old  Starry  Banner,  flying  in  triumph  over  the  Capitol, 
the  White  House,  the  departments,  and  hundreds  of 
dwellings.  Albeit  unused  to  the  melting  mood,  my 
heart  was  full,  and  my  eyelids  quivered  as  I  saw  it. 
Until  that  hour,  I  never  knew  how  I  loved  the  old  flag  ! 

Walking  down  Pennsylvania  avenue,  I  encountered 


116  AN  HOUR  WITH  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  [ISGI. 

troops  of  old  friends,  and  constantly  wondered  that  I  had 
"been  able  to  spend  ten  weeks  in  the  South,  without 
meeting  more  than  two  or  three  familiar  acquaintances. 

A  body-guard  for  the  President,  made  up  entirely  of 
citizens  of  Kansas,  armed  with  Sharp's  rifles,  was  on 
duty  every  night  at  the  White  House.  It  contained  two 
United  States  Senators,  three  members  and  ex-members 
of  Congress,  the  Chief-  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
several  editors  and  other  prominent  citizens  of  that 
patriotic  young  State. 

With  two  friends,  I  spent  an  hour  at  the  White 
House.  The  President,  though  overwhelmed  with  busi 
ness,  received  us  kindly,  and  economized  time  by  taking 
a  cup  of  tea  while  conversing  with  us,  and  inquiring 
very  minutely  about  affairs  in  the  seceding  States. 

"Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown," 

though  the  crown  be  only  the  chaplet  of  a  Republic. 

This  man  had  filled  the  measure  of  American  ambi 
tion,  but  the  remembered  brightness  of  his  face  was  in 
strange  contrast  with  the  weary,  haggard  look  it  now 
wore,  and  his  blushing  honors  seemed  pallid  and  ashen. 
There  was  the  same  honest,  kindly  tone — the  same  fund 
of  humorous  anecdote — the  same  genuineness  ;  but  the 
old,  free,  lingering  laugh  was  gone. 

"Mr.  Douglas,"  remarked  the  President,  "spent 
three  hours  with  me  this  afternoon.  For  several  days 
he  has  been  too  unwell  for  business,  and  has  devoted  his 
time  to  studying  war-matters,  until  he  understands  the 
military  position  better,  perhaps,  than  any  one  of  the 
Cabinet.  By  the  way,"  continued  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his 
peculiar  twinkle  of  the  eye,  ' '  the  conversation  turned 
upon  the  rendition  of  slaves.  'You  know,'  said  Doug 
las,  '  that  I  am  entirely  sound  on  the  Fugitive  Slave 


1861.]  PANIC  IN  WASHINGTON.  117 

Law.  I  am  for  enforcing  it  in  all  cases  within  its  true 
intent  and  meaning  ;  but,  after  examining  it  carefully,  I 
have  concluded  that  a  negro  insurrection  is  a  case  to 
which  it  does  not  apply.' ' 

I  had  not  come  north  a  moment  too  early.  The  train 
which  brought  me  from  Richmond  to  Acquia  Creek  was 
the  last  which  the  Rebel  authorities  permitted  to  pass 
without  interruption,  and  the  steamer,  on  reaching 
Washington,  was  seized  by  our  own  Government,  and 
made  no  more  regular  trips.  Before  I  had  been  an  hour 
in  the  Capital,  the  telegraph  wires  were  cut,  and  railway 
tracks  in  Maryland  torn  up.  Intelligence  of  the  mur 
derous  attack  of  a  Baltimore  mob  on  the  Sixth  Massa 
chusetts  regiment,  en  route  for  Washington,  startled  the 
town  from  its  propriety. 

Chaos  had  come  again.  Washington  was  the  seat  of 
an  intense  panic.  An  attack  from  the  Rebels  was  hourly 
expected,  and  hundreds  of  families  fled  from  the  city  in 
^•error.  During  the  next  two  days,  twenty -five  hundred 
TV  ell-officered,  resolute  men  could  undoubtedly  have 
Cfi-ytured  the  city.  The  air  was  filled  with  extravagant 
and  startling  rumors.  From  Virginia,  Union  refugees 
were  hourly  arriving,  often  after  narrow  escapes  from 
the  frenzied  populace. 

Massachusetts  soldiers,  who  had  safely  run  the  Balti 
more  gantlet  of  death,  were  quartered  in  the  United 
States  Senate  Chamber.  They  had  mustered  with  char 
acteristic-  promptness.  At  5  o'clock  one  evening,  a 
telegram  reached  Boston  asking  for  troops  for  the  de 
fense  of  the  imperiled  Capital.  At  9  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  the  first  company,  having  come  twenty-five 
miles  from  the  country,  stacked  arms  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
At  5  o'clock  that  night  the  Sixth  Regiment,  with  full 
ranks,  started  for  Washington.  They  were  fine-look- 


118  "CAME  OUT  TO  FIGHT!"  [isei. 

ing  fellows,  but  greatly  embittered  by  their  Baltimore 
experience.  In  a  very  quiet,  undemonstrative  way,  they 
manifested  an  earnest  desire  for  immediate  and  active 
service. 

The  bewilderment  and  terror  which  had  so  long 
rested  like  a  nightmare  on  the  National  authorities — 
which  for  months  had  left  almost  every  leading  Repub 
lican  statesman  timid  and  undecided — was  at  last  over. 
The  echoes  of  the  Charleston  guns  broke  the  spell ! 
The  masses  had  been  heard  from !  Then,  as  at  later 
periods  of  the  war,  the  popular  instinct  was  clearer  and 
truer  than  all  the  wisdom  of  the  politicians. 

During  the  three  days  I  spent  in  Washington,  the 
city  was  virtually  blockaded,  receiving  neither  mails, 
telegrams,  nor  re-enforcements.  Martial  law,  though  not 
declared,  was  sadly  needed.  Most  of  the  Secessionists 
had  left,  but  enough  remained  to  serve  as  spies  for  the 
Virginia  Revolutionists. 

I  left  for  New  York,  by  an  evening  train  crowded 
with  fleeing  families.  Most  of  them  went  west  from  tho 
Relay  House,  deterred  from  passing  through  Baltimore 
by  the  reign  of  terror  which  the  Rebels  had  inaugurated . 
The  most  zealous  Union  papers  advocated  Secession  us 
their  only  means  of  personal  and  pecuniary  safety.  The 
State  and  city  authorities,  though  professedly  loyal, 
bowed  helpless  before  the  storm.  Governor  Sprague, 
with  his  Rhode  Island  volunteers,  had  started  for  "Wash 
ington.  Mayor  Brown  telegraphed  him,  requesting  that 
they  should  not  come  through  Baltimore,  as  it  would 
exasperate  the  people. 

"The  Rhode  Island  regiment,"  was  Sprague' s  epi 
grammatic  response,  "came  out  to  fight,  and  may  just  as 
well  fight  in  Maryland  as  in  Virginia."  It  passed  un 
molested! 


1861.]  BALTIMORE  UNDER  REBEL  RULE.  119 

We  found  Baltimore  in  a  frenzy.  The  whole  city 
seemed  under  arms.  The  Union  men  were  utterly 
silenced,  and  many  had  fled.  The  only  person  I  heard 
express  undisguised  loyalty  was  a  young  lady  from 
Boston,  and  only  her  sex  protected  her.  Several  persons 
had  been  arrested  as  spies  during  the  day,  including  two 
supposed  correspondents  of  New  York  papers. 

Baltimore,  for  the  time,  was  worse  than  any  thing  I  had 
seen  in  Charleston,  New  Orleans,  or  Mobile.  Through 
the  evening  Barnum's  hotel  was  filled  with  soldiers. 
Stepping  into  the  office  to  make  arrangements  for  going 
to  Philadelphia,  I  encountered  an  old  acquaintance  from 
Cincinnati,  now  commanding  a  Baltimore  company  under 
arms : 

"If  Lincoln  persists  in  attempting  to  send  troops 
through  Maryland,"  said  he,  "we  are  bound  to  have  his 
head!" 

Another  Baltimorean  came  up  and  began  to  question 
me,  but  my  acquaintance  promptly  vouched  for  me  as 
"a  true  southern  man,"  and  I  escaped  annoyance.  The 
same  belief  was  expressed  here  which  prevailed  through 
out  the  whole  South,  that  northern  men  were  cowards ; 
and  persons  actually  alluded  to  the  attack  upon  the 
unarmed  Massachusetts  troops  as  an  act  of  bravery. 

Leaving  Baltimore,  I  took  a  carriage  for  the  nearest 
northern  railway  point.  The  roads  were  crowded  with 
families  leaving  the  city,  and  infested  by  Rebel  scouts 
and  patrols.  Union  citizens  were  helpless.  One  of  them 
said  to  us : 

"For  God's  sake,  beg  the  Administration  and  the 
North  not  to  let  us  be  crushed  out !  " 

We  hoped  to  take  the  Philadelphia  cars,  twenty-six 
miles  out,  but  a  detachment  of  Baltimore  soldiers  that 
very  morning  had  passed  up  the  railroad,  destroying 


120  THE  NORTH  FULLY  AROUSED.  [isei. 

every  bridge;  smoke  was  still  rising  from  their  ruins. 
We  were  compelled  to  press  on  and  on,  until,  in  the  even 
ing,  after  a  ride  of  forty- six  miles,  we  reached  York, 
Pennsylvania. 

Here,  at  last,  we  could  "breathe  freely.  But  "both 
railroads  being  monopolized  by  troops,  we  were  compel 
led,  wearily,  to  drive  on  to  the  village  of  Columbia,  on 
the  Susquehanna  river.  There  we  began  to  see  that  the 
North,  as  well  as  the  South,  was  under  martial  rule. 
Armed  sentinels  peremptorily  ordered  us  to  halt. 

On  identifying  the  driver,  and  learning  my  business, 
they  allowed  us  to  proceed.  At  the  bridge,  the  person 
in  charge  declined  to  open  the  gate  : 

"I  guess  you  can't  cross  to-night,  sir,"  said  he. 

I  replied  by  " guessing"  that  we  could;  but  he  con 
tinued  : 

"  Our  orders  are  positive,  to  let  no  one  pass  who  is 
not  personally  known  to  us." 

He  soon  became  convinced  that  I  was  not  an  emis 
sary  of  the  enemy ;  and  the  sentinels  escorted  us  across 
the  bridge,  a  mile  and  a  quarter  in  length.  We  pro 
ceeded  undisturbed  to  Lancaster,  arriving  there  at  two 
o'clock,  after  a  carriage-ride  of  seventy  miles.  Thence 
to  New  York,  communication  was  undisturbed. 

The  cold-blooded  North  was  fully  aroused.  Rebel 
sympathizers  found  themselves  utterly  swept  away  by 
a  Niagara  of  public  indignation.  In  Pennsylvania,  in 
New  York,  in  New  England,  I  heard  only  the  sentiment 
that  talking  must  be  ended,  and  acting  begun  ;  that,  cost 
what  it  might,  in  money  and  blood,  all  must  unite  to 
crush  the  gigantic  Treason  which  was  closing  its  fangs 
upon  the  throat  of  the  Republic. 

The  people  seemed  much  more  radical  than  the  Presi 
dent.  In  all  public  places,  threats  were  heard  that,  if 


186L]  UPRISING  OF  THE  WHOLE  PEOPLE.  121 

the  Administration  faltered,  it  must  be  overturned,  and 
a  dictatorship  established.  Against  the  Monumental  City, 
feeling  was  peculiarly  bitter.  All  said  : 

"  If  National  troops  can  not  march  unmolested  through 
Baltimore,  that  city  has  stood  long  enough !  Not  one 
stone  shall  be  left  upon  another." 

I  had  witnessed  a  good  deal  of  earnestness  and  en 
thusiasm  in  the  South,  but  nothing  at  all  approaching 
this  wonderful  uprising  of  the  whole  people.  All  seemed 
imbued  with  the  sentiment  of  those  official  papers  issued 
before  Napoleon  was  First  Consul,  beginning,  "In  the 
name  of  the  French  Republic,  one  and  indivisible." 

It  was  worth  a  lifetime  to  see  it — to  find  down  through 
all  the  debris  of  money- seeking,  and  all  the  strata  of 
politics,  this  underlying,  primary  formation  of  loyalty — 
this  unfaltering  determination  to  vindicate  the  right  of 
the  majority,  the  only  basis  of  republican  government. 

The  storm-cloud  had  burst ;  the  Irrepressible  Conflict 
was  upon  us.  Where  would  it  end  ?  What  forecast  or 
augury  could  tell?  Revolutions  ride  rough -shod  over 
all  probabilities  ;  and  who  has  mastered  the  logic  of  civil 
war? 

Here  ended  a  personal  experience,  sometimes  full  of 
discomfort,  but  always  full  of  interest.  It  enabled  me 
afterward  to  look  at  Secession  from  the  stand-point  of 
those  who  inaugurated  it ;  to  comprehend  Rebel  acts 
and  utterances,  which  had  otherwise  been  to  me  a  sealed 
book.  It  convinced  me,  too,  of  the  thorough  earnestness 
of  the  Revolutionists.  My  published  prediction,  that  we 
should  have  a  seven  years'  war  unless  the  country  used 
its  utmost  vigor  and  resources,  seemed  to  excite  a  mild 
suspicion  of  lunacy  among  my  personal  acquaintances. 

I  was  the  last  member  of  TJie  Tribune  staff  to  leave  the 
South.  By  rare  good  fortune,  all  its  correspondents 


122         A  TRIBUNE  CORRESPONDENT  ON  TRIAL.         [ISGI. 

escaped  personal  harm,  while  representatives  of  several 
other  New  York  journals  were  waited  upon  by  vigilance 
committees,  driven  out,  and  in  some  cases  imprisoned. 
It  was  a  favorite  jest,  that  The  Tribune  was  the  only 
northern  paper  whose  attaches  were  allowed  in  the  South. 

Its  South  Carolinian  correspondence  had  a  peculiar 
history.  Immediately  after  the  Presidential  election, 
Mr.  Charles  D.  Brigham  went  to  Charleston  as  its 
representative.  With  the  exception  of  two  or  three 
weeks,  he  remained  there  from  November  until  Febru 
ary,  writing  almost  daily  letters.  The  Charlestonians 
were  excited  and  indignant,  and  arrested  in  all  five  or 
six  persons  whom  they  unjustly  suspected. 

Finally,  about  the  middle  of  February,  Mr.  Brigham 
was  one  day  taken  into  custody,  and  brought  before 
Governor  Pickens  and  his  cabinet  counselors,  among 
whom  Ex-Governor  McGrath  was  the  principal  in 
quisitor.  At  this  time  the  Southern  Confederacy  ex 
isted  only  in  embryo,  and  South  Carolina  claimed  to  be 
an  independent  republic.  The  correspondent,  who  had 
great  coolness  and  self-control,  and  knew  a  good  deal 
of  human  nature,  maintained  a  serene  exterior  despite  the 
awkwardness  of  his  position.  After  a  rigid  catechisation, 
he  was  relieved  to  find  that  the  tribunal  did  not  surmise 
his  real  character,  but  suspected  him  of  being  a  spy  of 
the  Government. 

His  trial  took  place  at  the  executive  head-quarters, 
opposite  the  Charleston  Hotel,  and  lasted  from  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night.  During  the 
afternoon,  the  city  being  disturbed  by  one  of  its  daily 
reports  that  a  Federal  fleet  had  appeared  off  the  bar,  he 
was  turned  over  to  Mr.  Alexander  H.  Brown,  a  lead 
ing  criminal  lawyer,  famous  for  his  skill  in  examining 
witnesses.  Mr.  Brown  questioned,  re-questioned,  and 


1861.]  HE  is  WARNED  TO  DEPART.  123 

cross-questioned  the  vagrant  scribe,  but  was  completely 
baffled  by  him.  He  finally  said : 

"Mr.  Brigham,  while  I  think  you  are  all  right,  this 
is  a  peculiar  emergency,  and  you  must  see  that,  under 
the  circumstances,  it  will  be  necessary  for  you  to  leave 
the  South  at  once." 

The  "  sweet  sorrow"  of  parting  gladdened  his  jour 
nalistic  heart ;  but,  at  the  bidding  of  prudence,  he  re 
plied  : 

"  I  hope  not,  sir.  It  is  very  hard  for  one  who,  as  you 
are  bound  to  admit,  after  the  most  rigid  scrutiny,  has 
done  nothing  improper,  who  has  deported  himself  as  a 
gentleman  should,  who  sympathizes  with  you  as  far  as 
a  stranger  can,  to  be  driven  out  in  this  way." 

The  attorney  replied,  with  that  quiet  significance 
which  such  remarks  possessed : 

"I  am  sorry,  sir,  that  it  is  not  a  question  for  argu 
ment," 

The  lucky  journalist,  while  whispering  he  would 
ne'er  consent,  consented.  Whereupon  the  lawyer,  who 
seemed  to  have  some  qualms  of  conscience,  invited  him 
to  join  in  a  bottle  of  wine,  and  when  they  had  become 
a  little  convivial,  suddenly  asked  : 

"By  the  way,  do  you  know  who  is  writing  the  letters 
from  here  to  The  Tribune  f 

' '  Why,  no, ' '  was  the  answer.  ' '  I  haven't  seen  a  copy 
of  that  paper  for  six  months ;  but  I  supposed  there 
was  no  such  person,  as  I  had  read  in  your  journals  that 
the  letters  were  purely  fictitious." 

"There  is  such  a  man,"  replied  Brown ;  "and  thus 
far,  though  we  have  arrested  four  or  five  persons,  sup 
posing  that  we  had  found  him,  he  completely  baffles  us. 
Now,  when  you  get  home  to  New  York,  can't  you  ascer 
tain  who  he  is,  and  let  us  know  ?" 


124       TRIBUNE  REPRESENTATIVES  IN  CHARLESTON,      [isei. 

Mr.  Brigham,  knowing  exactly  what  tone  to  adopt 
with  the  " Chivalry,"  replied: 

"Of  course,  sir,  I  would  not  act  as  a  spy  for  you  or 
anybody  else.  However,  such  things  have  a  kind  of 
publicity  ;  are  talked  of  in  saloons  and  on  street-corners. 
If  I  can  learn  in  that  way  who  The  Tribune  correspond 
ent  is,  I  shall  deem  it  my  duty  to  advise  you." 

The  lawyer  listened  with  credulity  to  this  whisper  of 
hope,  though  a  well-known  Rebel  detective,  named  Shou- 
bac — a  swarthy,  greasy,  uncomfortable  fellow,  with  a 
Jewish  countenance — did  not.  He  remarked  to  the  late 
prisoner : 

"  You  haven't  fooled  me,  if  you  have  Brown." 

But  Mr.  Brigham  was  allowed  to  depart  in  peace  for 
New  York.  The  Tribune  afterward  had  in  Charleston 
five  or  six  different  correspondents,  usually  keeping  two 
there  at  a  time  for  emergencies.  Often  they  did  not 
know  each  other  personally ;  and  there  was  no  communi 
cation  between  them.  When  one  was  arrested,  there 
was  always  another  in  reserve  to  continue  the  corre 
spondence.  Mr.  Brigham,  who  remained  in  the  home 
editorial  rooms,  retouched  the  letters  just  enough  to 
stamp  them  as  the  work  of  one  hand,  and  the  baffled 
authorities  went  hopelessly  up  and  down  to  cast  out  the 
evil  spirit  which  troubled  their  peace,  and  whose  unsus 
pected  name  was  legion. 


1861.]  A  SUNDAY  AT  NIAGARA  FALLS.  125 


II. 
THE   FIELD. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Cry  Havoc !    and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  War. — Juxros  C-SSAB. 

SANCHO  PANZA  passed  away  too  early.  To-day,  lie 
would  extend  Ms  "benediction  on  the  man  who  invented 
sleep,  to  the  person  who  introduced  sleeping-cars.  The 
name  of  that  philanthropist,  by  whose  luxurious  aid  we 
may  enjoy  unbroken  sleep  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five 
miles  an  hour,  should  not  be  concealed  from  a  grateful 
posterity. 

Thus  I  soliloquized  one  May  evening,  when,  in  pur 
suit  of  that  "seat  of  war,"  as  yet  visible  only  to  the 
prophetic  eye,  or  in  newspaper  columns,  I  turned  my  face 
westward.  It  were  more  exact  to  say,  "turned  my 
heels."  Inexorable  conductors  compel  the  drowsy  pas 
senger  to  ride  feet  foremost,  on  the  hypothesis  that  he 
would  rather  break  a  leg  than  knock  his  brains  out. 

I  was  detained  for  a  day  at  Suspension  Bridge-;  but 
life  has  more  afflictive  dispensations,  even  for  the  im 
patient  traveler,  than  a  Sunday  at  Niagara  Falls.  Vanity 
of  vanities  indeed  must  existence  be  to  him  who  could 
not  find  a  real  Sabbath  at  the  great  cataract,  laying  his 
tired  head  upon  the  calm  breast  of  Nature,  and  feeling 
the  pulsations  of  her  deep,  loving  heart ! 

Eight  years  had  intervened  since  my  last  visit.    There 


126  VlEW   FROM   THE    SUSPENSION    BRIDGE.  [1861. 

was  no  second  pang  of  the  disappointment  we  feel  in 
seeing  for  the  first  time  any  object  of  world- wide  fame. 
In  Nature,  as  in  Art,  the  really  great,  however  falling 
below  the  ideal  at  first  glance,  grows  upon  the  "beholder 
forever  afterward. 

Though  the  visiting  season  had  not  "begun,  the  harpies 
were  waiting  for  their  victims.  Step  out  of  your  hotel, 
or  turn  a  corner,  and  one  instantly  pounced  upon  you. 
But,  though  numerous,  they  were  quiet,  and  decorous 
manners,  even  in  leeches,  are  above  all  praise. 

Everybody  at  the  Falls  is  eager  to  shield  you  from 
the  extortion  of  everybody  else.  The  driver,  whom  you 
pay  two  dollars  per  hour ;  the  vender,  who  sells  you 
Indian  bead- work  at  a  profit  of  one  hundred  per  cent.  ; 
the  guide,  who  fleeces  you  for  leading  to  places  you 
would  rather  find  without  him — each  warns  you  against 
the  other,  with  touching  zeal  for  your  welfare.  And  the 
precocious  boy,  who  offers  a  bit  of  slate  from  under  the 
Cataract  for  two  shillings,  cautions  you  to  beware  of 
them  all. 

As  you  cross  the  suspension  bridge,  the  driver  points 
out  the  spot,  more  than  two  hundred  feet  above  the 
water,  where  Blondin,  of  tight-rope  renown,  crossed  upon 
a  single  strand,  with  a  man  upon  his  shoulders,  cooked  Ms 
aerial  omelet,  hung  by  the  heels,  and  played  other  fan 
tastic  tricks  before  high  heaven. 

From  the  bridge  you  view  three  sections  of  the  Cata 
ract.  First,  is  the  lower  end  of  the  American  Fall, 
whose  deep  green  is  intermingled  with  jets  and  streaks 
of  white.  Its  smooth  surface  conveys  the  impression  of 
the  segment  of  a  slowly  revolving  wheel  rather  than  of 
tumbling  water.  Beyond  the  dense  foliage  appears  an 
other  section,  parted  in  the  middle  by  the  stone  tower  on 
Qoat  Island.  Its  water  is  of  snowy  whiteness,  and  looks 


1861.]  PALACE  OF  THE  FROST  KINO.  127 

like  an  immense  frozen  fountain.  Still  farther  is  the 
great  Horse- shoe  Fall,  its  deep  green  surface  veiled  at 
the  base  in  clouds  of  pure  white  mist. 

Here,  at  the  distance  of  two  miles,  the  Falls  soothe 
you  with  their  quiet,  surpassing  beauty.  But  when  you 
reach  them  on  the  Canada  side,  and  go  down,  down,  be 
neath  Table  Rock,  under  the  sheet  of  water,  you  feel 
their  sublimity.  As  you  look  out  upon  the  sea  of  snowy 
foam  below,  or  through  the  rainbow  hues  of  the  vast 
sweeping  curtain  above,  the  earth  trembles  with  the  un 
ceasing  thunder  of  the  cataract. 

In  winter  the  effect  is  grandest.  Then,  from  the 
bank  in  front  of  the  Clifton  House,  you  look  down  on 
upright  rocks,  crowned  with  pinnacles  of  ice,  till  they 
rise  half  way  to  the*  summit,  or  catch  glimpses  of  the 
boundless  column  of  water  as  it  strikes  the  torrent  be 
low,  faintly  seen  through  the  misty,  alabaster  spray 
rising  forever  from  its  troubled  bed.  Hundreds  of 
white-winged  sea-gulls  graze  the  rapids  above,  and  cir 
cle  down  to  plunge  in  the  waters  below. 

Attired  in  stiff,  cold,  water-proof  clothing,  which, 
culminating  in  a  round  oil-cloth  cap,  makes  you  look 
like  an  Esquimaux  and  feel  like  a  mummy,  you  follow 
the  guide  far  down  dark,  icy  stairs  and  paths. 

Look  up  ninety  feet,  and  see  the  great  torrent  pour 
over  the  brink.  Look  down  seventy  feet  from  your  icy 
little  shelf,  and  behold  it  plunge  into  the  dense  mist  of 
the  boiling  gulf.  Through  its  half-transparent  sheet, 
filtered  rays  of  the  bright  sunshine  struggle  toward  your 
eyes.  You  are  in  the  palace  of  the  Frost  King.  Ice — 
ice  everywhere,  from  your  slippery  foothold  to  the  huge 
icicles,  fifty  feet  long  and  three  feet  thick,  which  over 
hang  you  like  the  sword  of  Damocles. 

Admiration  without  comparison  is  vague  and  unsatis- 


128          CHICAGO  RISING  FROM  THE  EARTH.  [isei. 

factory.  Less  glorious,  because  less  vast,  than  the  match 
less  panorama  seen  from  the  summit  of  Pike's  Peak, 
this  picture  is  nearly  as  impressive,  "because  spread  right 
"beside  you,  and  at  your  very  feet.  Less  minutely 
"beautiful  than  the  exquisite  chambers  of  the  Mammoth 
Cave,  its  great  range  and  sweep  make  it  more  grand  and 
imposing. 

Along  the  Great  Western  Railway  of  Canada,  the 
country  closely  resembles  northern  Ohio  ;  but  the  peo 
ple  have  uncompromising  English  faces.  A  well- 
dressed  farmer  and  his  wife  rode  upon  our  train  all  day 
in  a  second-class  car,  without  seeming  in  the  least 
ashamed  of  it — a  moral  courage  not  often  exhibited  in  the 
United  States. 

At  Detroit,  an  invalid,  pale,  wasted,  unable  to  speak 
above  a  whisper,  was  lying  on  a  bed  hastily  spread 
upon  the  floor  of  the  railway  station.  Her  husband, 
with  their  two  little  boys  bending  over  her  in  tears,  told 
us  that  they  had  been  driven  from  New  Orleans,  and  he 
was  now  taking  his  dying  wife  to  their  old  home  in 
Maine.  There  were  few  dry  eyes  among  the  lookers-on. 
A  liberal  sum  of  money  was  raised  on  the  spot  for  the 
destitute  family,  whose  broken  pride,  after  some  persua 
sion,  accepted  it. 

The  next  morning  we  reached  Chicago.  In  that 
breezy  city  upon  the  lake  shore,  property  was  literally 
rising.  Many  of  the  largest  brick  and  stone  blocks  were 
being  elevated  five  or  six  feet,  by  a  very  nice  system  of 
screws  under  their  walls,  while  people  were  constantly 
pouring  in  and  out  of  them,  and  the  transaction  of  busi 
ness  was  not  impeded.  The  stupendous  enterprise  was 
undertaken  that  the  streets  might  be  properly  graded 
and  drained.  This  summoning  a  great  metropolis  to  rise 
from  its  vasty  deep  of  mud,  is  one  of  the  modern  miracles 


i86i.]  MYSTERIES  OF  WESTERN  CURRENCY.  129 

of  mechanics,  which  make  even  geological  revelations 
appear  trivial  and  common-place. 

The  world  has  many  mysteries,  but  none  more  in 
scrutable  than  Western  Currency.  The  notes  of  most 
Illinois  and  'Wisconsin  banks,  based  on  southern  State 
bonds,  having  depreciated  steadily  for  several  weeks, 
gold  and  New  York  exchange  now  commanded  a  pre 
mium  of  twenty  per  cent.  The  Michigan  Central  Rail 
way  Company  was  a  good  illustration  of  the  effect  of 
this  upon  Chicago  interests.  That  corporation  was 
paying  six  thousand  dollars  per  week  in  premiums 
upon  eastern  exchange.  Yet  the  hotels  and  mercantile 
houses  were  receiving  the  currency  at  par.  One  Illi 
nois  bank-note  depreciated  just  seventy  per  cent., 
during  the  twelve  hours  it  spent  in  my  possession ! 

In  Chicago  I  encountered  an  old  friend  just  from 
Memphis.  His  association  with  leading  Secessionists  for 
some  time  protected  him ;  but  the  popular  frenzy  was 
now  so  wild  that  they  counselled  him,  as  he  valued 
his  life,  to  stay  not  upon  the  order  of  his  going,  but  go 
at  once. 

The  Memphians  were  repudiating  northern  debts, 
and,  with  unexampled  ferocity,  driving  out  all  men  sus 
pected  of  Abolitionism  or  Unionism.  More  than  five 
thousand  citizens  had  been  forced  or  frightened  away, 
and  in  many  cases  beggared.  A  secret  Committee  of 
Safety,  made  up  of  prominent  citizens,  was  ruling  with 
despotic  sway. 

Scores  of  suspected  persons  were  brought  before  it 
daily,  and,  if  they  could  not  exculpate  themselves,  sen 
tenced  to  banishment,  with  head  half  shaved,  to  whip 
ping,  or  to  death.  Though,  by  the  laws  of  all  slave  States, 
negroes  were  precluded  from  testifying  against  white 
men,  this  inquisition  received  their  evidence.  My  friend 

9 


130         A  HORRIBLE  SPECTACLE  ix  ARKANSAS.         [ISGI. 

dared  not  avow  that  lie  was  coming  North,  "but  purchased 
a  ticket  for  St.  Louis,  which  was  then  deemed  a  Rebel 
stronghold. 

As  the  steamer  passed  Osceola,  Arkansas,  he  saw  the 
"body  of  a  man  hanging  by  the  heels,  in  full  view  of  the 
river.  A  citizen  told  him  that  it  had  been  there  for  eight 
days ;  that  the  wretched  victim,  upon  mere  suspicion  of 
tampering  with  slaves,  was  suspended,  head  downward, 
and  suffered  intensely  before  death  came  to  his  relief. 

All  on  board  the  crowded  steamboat  pretended  to  be 
Secessionists.  But  when,  at  last,  nearing  Cairo,  they  saw 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  first  one,  then  another,  began  to 
huzza.  The  enthusiasm  was  contagious ;  and  in  a  mo 
ment  nearly  all,  many  with  heaving  breasts  and  stream 
ing  eyes,  gave  vent  to  their  long-suppressed  feeling  in 
one  tumultuous  cheer  for  the  Flag  of  the  Free.  Of  the 
one  hundred  and  fifty  passengers,  nearly  every  man  was 
a  fleeing  Unionist. 

The  all-pervading  railroad  and  telegraph  in  the  North 
began  to  show  their  utility  in  war.  Cairo,  the  extreme 
southern  point  of  Illinois,  now  garrisoned  by  Union 
troops,  was  threatened  by  the  enemy.  The  superintend 
ent  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railway  (including  branches, 
seven  hundred  and  four  miles  in  length)  assured  me  that, 
at  ten  hours'  notice,  he  could  start,  from  the  various 
points  along  his  line,  four  miles  of  cars,  capable  of  trans 
porting  twenty-four  thousand  soldiers. 

The  Rebels  noAV  began  to  perceive  their  mistake  in 
counting  upon  the  friendship  of  the  great  Northwest. 
Indeed,  of  all  their  wild  dreams,  this  was  wildest.  They 
expected  the  very  States  which  claimed  Mr.  Lincoln  as 
from  their  own  section,  and  voted  for  him  by  heavy  ma 
jorities,  to  help  break  up  the  Union  because  he  was 
elected !  Though  learning  their  delusion,  they  never 


i86i.]  PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  NORTHWEST.  131 

comprehended  its  cause.     After  the  war  had  continued 
nearly  a  year,  The  New  Orleans  Delta  said  : 

"The  people  of  the  Northwest  are  b\ir  natural  allies,  and  ought  to 
be  fighting  on  our  side.  It  is  the  profoundest  mystery  of  these  times 
how  the  few  Yankee  peddlers  and  school-marms  there  have  been  able  to 
convert  them  into  our  bitter  enemies." 

On  the  mere  instinct  of  nationality — the  "bare  question 
of  an  undivided  republic — the  West  would  perhaps  fight 
longer,  and  sacrifice  more,  than  any  other  section.  Its 
people,  if  not  more  earnest,  are  much  more  demonstrative 
than  their  eastern  brethren.  Their  long  migration  from 
the  Atlantic  States  to  the  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  or 
the  Platte,  has  quickened,  and  enlarged  their  patriotism. 
It  has  made  our  territorial  greatness  to  them  no  abstrac 
tion,  but  a  reality. 

No  one  else  looks  forward  with  such  faith  and  fervor 
to  that  great  future  when  man  shall  "fill  up  magnifi 
cently  the  magnificent  designs  of  Nature;"  when  their 
Mississippi  Yalley  shall  be  the  heart  of  mightiest  empire  ; 
when,  from  all  these  mingling  nationalities,  shall  spring 
the  ripe  fruitage  of  free  schools  and  free  ballots,  in  a 
higher  average  Man  than  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

Our  train  from  Chicago  to  St.  Louis  was  crowded  with 
Union  troops.  Along  the  route  booming  guns  saluted 
them ;  handkerchiefs  fluttered  from  windows ;  flags 
streamed  from  farm-houses  and  in  village  streets ;  old 
men  arid  boys  at  the  plofr  huzzaed  themselves  hoarse. 

Thus,  at  the  rising  of  the  curtain,  the  northwestern 
States,  worthy  offspring  of  the  Ordinance  of  Eighty- 
seven,  were  sending  out — 

"  A  multitude,  like  which  the  populous  North 
Poured  never  from  her  frozen  loins." 

Four  blood-stained  years  have  not  dimmed  their  faith 


132        MISSOURI  REBELS  BENT  ON  REVOLUTION.        [isei. 

or  abated  their  ardor.  "  Wherever  Death  spread  his 
"banquet,  they  furnished  many  guests."  What  histories 
have  they  not  made  for  themselves !  Ohio,  Iowa,  Kan 
sas,  Wisconsin — indeed,  if  we  call  their  roll,  which  State 
has  not  covered  herself  with  honor — which  has  not 
achieved  her  Lexington — her  Saratoga — her  Bennington— 
though  the  battle-field  lie  beyond  her  soil  ?* 

In  St.  Louis  I  found  at  last  a  "  seat  of  war."  Recent 
days  had  been  full  of  startling  events.  The  Missouri 
Legislature,  at  Jefferson  City,  desired  to  pass  a  Seces 
sion  ordinance,  but  had  no  pretext  for  doing  so.  The 
election  of  a  State  Convention,  to  consider  this  very  sub 
ject,  had  just  demonstrated,  by  overwhelming  Union 
majorities,  the  loyalty  of  the  masses.  Claiborne  Fox 
Jackson,  the  Governor,  was  a  Secessionist,  and  was  de 
termined  to  plunge  Missouri  into  revolution.  This 
flagrant,  open  warfare  against  the  popular  majority, 
well  illustrated  how  grossly  the  Rebels  deceived  them 
selves  in  supposing  that  tbeir  conduct  was  impelled  by 
regard  for  State  Rights,  rather  than  by  the  inherent  an 
tagonism  between  free  and  slave  labor. 

Camp  Jackson,  commanded  by  Gen.  D.  M.  Frost, 
was  established  at  Lindell  Grove,  two  miles  west  of 
St.  Louis,  "for  the  organization  and  instruction  of  the 
State  Militia."  It  embraced  some  Union  men,  both  offi 
cers  and  privates.  Frost  and  his  friends  claimed  that 
it  was  loyal ;  but  the  State  flag,  only,  was  flying  from 
the  camp,  and  its  streets  were  named  "  Davis  Avenue," 
"  Beauregard  Avenue,"  etc. 

*  ]STow  (April,  1865),  -while  we  are  witnessing  some  of  the  closing 
scenes  of  the  war,  subscriptions  to  the  popular  loan  of  the  Government 
come  pouring  in  from  the  West  more  large]/,  according  to  wealth  and 
population,  than  from  any  other  section. 


1861]         NATHANIEL  LYON  AND  CAMP  JACKSON.          133 

An  envoy  extraordinary,  sent  by  Governor  Jackson, 
had  just  returned  from  Louisiana  with  shot,  shell,  and 
mortars — all  stolen  from  the  United  States  Arsenal  at 
Baton  Rouge.  The  camp  was  really  designed  as  the 
nucleus  of  a  Secession  force,  to  seize  the  Government 
property  in  St.  Louis  and  drive  out  the  Federal  authori 
ties.  But  the  Union  men  were  too  prompt  for  the 
Rebels.  Long  before  the  capture  of  Fort  Sumter, 
nightly  drills  were  instituted  among  the  loyal  Germans 
of  St.  Louis  ;  and  within  two  weeks  after  the  President's 
first  call  for  troops,  Missouri  had  ten  thousand  Union 
soldiers,  armed,  equipped,  and  in  camp. 

The  first  act  of  the  Union  authorities  was  to  remove 
by  night  all  the  munitions  from  the  United  States  Ar 
senal  near  St.  Louis,  to  Alton,  Illinois.  When  the  Reb 
els  learned  it,  they  were  intensely  exasperated.  The 
Union  troops  were  commanded  by  a  quiet,  slender, 
stooping,  red-haired,  pale-faced  officer,  who  walked 
about  in  brown  linen  coat,  wearing  no  military  insignia. 
He  was  by  rank  a  captain  ;  his  name  was  Nathaniel 
Lyon. 

On  the  tenth  of  May,  Capt.  Lyon,  with  three  or  four 
hundred  regulars,  and  enough  volunteers  to  swell 
his  forces  to  five  thousand,  planted  cannon  upon  the 
hills  commanding  Camp  Jackson,  and  sent  to  Gen.  Frost 
a  note,  reciting  conclusive  evidence  of  its  treasonable 
intent,  and  concluding  as  follows  : 

"  I  do  hereby  demand  of  you  an  immediate  surrender  of  your  com 
mand,  with  no  other  conditions  than  that  all  persons  surrendering 
shall  be  humanely  and  kindly  treated.  Believing  myself  prepared  to 
enforce  this  demand,  one-half  hour's  time  will  be  allowed  for  your 
compliance." 

This  contrasted  so  sharply  with  the  shuffling  timidity 
of  our  civil  and  military  authorities,  usual  at  this  period, 


134  STERLING  PRICE  JOINS  THE  REBELS.  [isei. 

that  Frost  was  surprised  and  "  shocked."  His  reply, 
of  course,  characterized  the  demand  as  "illegal"  and 
"unconstitutional."  In  those  days  there  were  no  such 
sticklers  for  the  Constitution  as  the  men  taking  up  arms 
against  it !  Frost  wrote  that  he  surrendered  only  upon 
compulsion — his  forces  beina;  too  weak  for  resistance. 
The  encampment  was  found  to  contain  twenty  cannon, 
more  than  twelve  hundred  muskets,  many  mortars, 
siege-howitzers,  and  shells,  charged  ready  for  use— 
which  convinced  even  the  most  skeptical  that  it  was 
something  more  than  a  school  for  instruction. 

The  garrison,  eight  hundred  strong,  were  marched 
out  under  guard.  There  were  many  thousands  of  spec 
tators.  Hills,  fields,  and  house-tops  were  black  with 
people.  In  spite  of  orders  to  disperse,  crowds  fol 
lowed,  jeering  the  Union  troops,  throwing  stones,  brick 
bats,  and  other  missiles,  and  finally  discharging  pistols. 
Several  soldiers  were  hurt,  and  one  captain  shot  down  at 
the  head  of  his  company,  when  the  troops  fired  on  the 
crowd,  killing  twenty  and  wounding  eleven.  As  in  all 
such  cases,  several  innocent  persons  suffered. 

Intense  excitement  followed.  A  large  public  meeting 
convened  that  evening  in  front  of  the  Planter's  House- 
heard  bitter  speeches  from  Governor  Jackson,  Sterling 
Price,  and  others.  The  crowd  afterward  went  to  mob 
TJie  Democrat  office,  but  it  contained  too  many  resolute 
Unionists,  armed  with  rifles  and  hand-grenades,  and  they 
wisely  desisted. 

Sterling  Price  was  president  of  the  State  Convention 
—elected  as  an  Unconditional  Unionist.  But,  in  this 
whirlwind,  he  went  over  to  the  enemy.  An  old  feud  ex 
isted  between  him  and  a  leading  St.  Louis  loyalist. 
Price  had  a  small,  detached  command  in  the  Mexican 
war.  Afterward,  he  was  Governor  of  Missouri,  and  can- 


i8Gi.]  SEVERE  Loss  TO  THE  UNIONISTS.  135 

didate  for  the  United  States  Senate.  An  absurd  sketch, 
magnifying  a  trivial  skirmish  into  a  great  battle,  with 
Price  looming  up  heroically  in  the  foreground,  was 
drawn  and  engraved  by  an  unfortunate  artist,  then  in 
the  Penitentiary.  It  pleased  Price's  vanity;  he  circu 
lated  it  largely,  and  pardoned  out  the  suffering  votary 
of  art. 

When  the  Legislature  was  about  voting  for  United 
States  Senator,  Frank  Blair,  Jr.,  then  a  young  member 
from  St.  Louis,  obtained  permission  to  say  a  few  words 
about  the  candidates.  He  was  a  great  vessel  of  wrath, 
and  administered  a  terrible  excoriation,  pronouncing 
Price  ''worthy  the  genius  of  a  convict  artist,  and  fit 
subject  for  a  Penitentiary  print !"  Price  was  defeated, 
and  the  rupture  never  healed. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Eebellion,  Price  was  far  more 
loyal  than  men  afterward  prominent  Union  leaders  in 
Missouri.  In  those  chaotic  days,  very  slight  influences 
decided  the  choice  of  many.  By  tender  treatment,  Price 
could  doubtless  have  been  retained ;  but  neither  party 
regarded  him  as  possessing  much  ability. 

His  defection  proved  a  calamity  to  the  Loyalists.  He 
was  worth  twenty  thousand  soldiers  to  the  Kebels,  and 
developed  rare  military  talent.  Like  Kobert  E.  Lee,  he 
was  an  old  man,  of  pure  personal  character,  sincerity, 
kindness  of  heart,  and  unequaled  popularity  among  the 
self- sacrificing  ragamuffins  whom  he  commanded.  He 
held  them  together,  and  induced  them  to  fight  with  a 
bravery  and  persistency  which,  Rebels  though  they 
were,  was  creditable  to  the  American  name.  With  a 
good  cause,  they  would  have  challenged  the  world's 
acclamation. 

At  this  time  the  President  was  treating  the  border 
slave  States  with  marvelous  tenderness  and  timidity. 


136  ST.  Louis  IN  A  CONVULSION. 

The  Rev.  M.  D.  Conway  declared,  wittily,  tliat  Mr.  Lin 
coln'  s  daily  and  nightly  invocation  ran  : 

"  O  Lord,  I  desire  to  have  Thee  on  my  side,  but  I  must  have  Ken 
tucky!" 

Captain  Lyon  was  confident  that  if  he  asked  per 
mission  to  seize  Camp  Jackson,  it  would  be  refused.  So 
he  captured  the  camp,  and  then  telegraphed  to  Washing 
ton — not  what  he  proposed  to  do,  "but  what  he  had  done. 
At  first  his  act  was  disapproved.  But  the  loyal  country 
applauded  to  the  echo,  and  Lyon' s  name  was  everywhere 
honored.  Hence  the  censure  was  withheld,  and  he  was 
made  a  Brigadier- General ! 

Governor  Jackson  burned  the  bridges  on  the  Pacific 
Railroad ;  the  Missouri  Legislature  passed  an  indirect 
ordinance  of  Secession,  and  adjourned  in  a  panic,  caused 
by  reports  that  Lyon  was  coming  ;  a  Union  regiment 
was  attacked  in  St.  Louis,  and  again  fired  into  the 
mob,  with  deadly  results.  The  city  was  convulsed  with 
terror.  Every  available  vehicle,  including  heavy 
ox  wagons,  was  brought  into  requisition ;  every  out 
going  railway  train  was  crowded  with  passengers  ;  every 
avenue  was  thronged  with  fugitives ;  every  steamer  at 
the  levee  was  laden  with  families,  who,  with  no  definite 
idea  of  where  they  were  going,  had  hastily  packed  a  few 
articles  of  clothing,  to  flee  from  the  general  and  bloody 
conflict  supposed  to  be  impending  between  the  Ameri 
cans  and  the  Dutch,  as  Secessionists  artfully  termed 
the  two  parties.  Thus  there  became  a  "  Seat  of  War." 

Heart-rending  as  were  the  stories  of  most  southern 
refugees,  some  were  altogether  ludicrous.  In  St.  Louis, 
I  encountered  an  old  acquaintance  who  related  to  me  his 
recent  experiences  in  Nashville.  Grandiloquent  enough 
they  sounded ;  for  his  private  conversation  always  ran 
into  stump  speeches. 


1861.]  A  NASHVILLE  EXPERIENCE.  137 

"  One  day,"  said  he,  "I  was  waited  on  by  a  party  of 
leading  Nashville  citizens,  who  remarked:  ' Captain 
May,  we  know  very  well  that  you  are  with  us  in  senti 
ment  ;  but,  as  you  come  from  the  North,  others,  less  inti 
mate  with  you,  desire  some  special  assurance.'  I  replied : 
'  Gentlemen,  by  education,  by  instinct,  and  by  associa 
tion,  I  am  a  Southern  man.  But,  gentlemen,  when  you 
fire  upon  that  small  bit  of  bunting  known  as  the  Amer 
ican  flag,  you  can  count  me,  by  Heaven,  as  your  per 
sistent  and  uncompromising  foe !'  The  committee  inti 
mated  to  me  that  the  next  train  for  the  North  started  in 
one  hour !  You  may  stake  your  existence,  sir,  that  the 
subscriber  came  away  on  that  train.  Confound  a  coun 
try,  anyhow,  where  a  man  must  wear  a  Secession  cock 
ade  upon  each  coat-tail  to  keep  himself  from  being 
kicked  as  an  Abolitionist !" 

Inexorable  war  knows  no  ties  of  friendship,  of  family, 
or  of  love.  Its  bitterest  features  were  seen  on  the  border, 
where  brother  was  arrayed  against  brother,  and  husband 
against  wife.  At  a  little  Missouri  village,  the  Rebels 
raised  their  flag,  but  it  was  promptly  torn  down  by  the 
loyal  wife  of  one  of  the  leaders.  I  met  a  lady  who 
had  two  brothers  in  the  Union  army,  and  two  among 
Price's  Rebels,  who  were  likely  soon  to  meet  on  the 
battle-field. 

In  St,  Louis,  a  Rebel  damsel,  just  about  to  be  married, 
separated  from  her  Union  lover,  declaring  that  no  man 
who  favored  the  Abolitionists  and  the  "  Dutch  hirelings" 
could  be  her  husband.  He  retorted  that  he  had  no  use 
for  a  wife  who  sympathized  with  treason ;  and  so  the 
match  was  broken  off. 

I  knew  a  Union  soldier  who  found  at  Camp  Jackson, 
among  the  prisoners,  his  own  brother,  wounded  by  two 
Minie  rifle  balls.  He  said:  "I  am  sorry  my  brother 


138  BITTERNESS  OF  OLD  NEIGHBORS.  [ISGI. 

was  shot ;  "but  lie  should  not  have  joined  the  traitors !" 
Of  course,  the  bitterness  between  relatives  and  old 
neighbors,  now  foes,  was  infinitely  greater  than  between 
northerners  and  southerners.  The  same  was  true  every 
where.  How  intensely  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee 
Eebels  hated  their  fellow-citizens  who  adhered  to  the 
Union  cause !  Ohio  and  Massachusetts  Loyalists  de 
nounced  northern  ' '  Copperheads' '  with  a  malignity  which 
they  never  felt  toward  South  Carolinians  and  Missis- 
sippians.  • 

ST.  Louis,  May  20,  1861. 

When  South  Carolina  seceded,  the  slave  property  of 
Missouri  was  worth  forty-five  millions  of  dollars  ;  hence 
she  is  under  bonds  to  just  that  amount  to  keep  the  peace. 
With  thirteen  hundred  miles  of  frontier,  she  is  "a  slave 
peninsula  in  an  ocean  of  free  soil."  Free  Kansas,  which 
has  many  old  scores  to  clear  up,  guards  her  on  the  west. 
Free  Iowa,  embittered  by  hundreds  of  Union  refugees, 
watches  her  on  the  north.  Free  Illinois,  the  young 
giantess  of  the  prairie,  takes  care  of  her  on  the  east. 
This  loyal  metropolis,  with  ten  Union  regiments  already 
under  arms,  is  for  her  a  sort  of  front-door  police.  Mis 
souri,  in  the  significant  phrase  of  the  frontier,  is  corraled.* 

Here,  at  least,  as  The  RicJimond  Wing,  just  before 
going  over  to  the  Rebels,  so  aptly  said:  "Secession  is 
Abolitionism  in  its  worst  and  most  dangerous  form." 

Rebels  glare  upon  Union  men  like  chained  wild 
beasts.  Citizens,  walking  by  night,  remember  the  late 
assassinations,  and,  like  Americans  in  Mexican  towns, 
cast  suspicious  glances  behind.  Secessionists  utter  fierce 

*  From  the  Spanish  corral,  a  yard.  Upon  our  frontier  it  is  used,  col 
loquially,  as  a  verb,  to  signify  surrounded,  captured,  completely  in  the 
power,  or  at  the  mercy,  of  another. 


1861.]          GOOD  SOLDIERS  FOR  SCALING  WALLS.  139 

threats ;  but  since  their  recent  severe  admonition  that 
Unionists,  too,  can  use  fire-arms,  and  that  it  is  not  discreet 
to  attack  United  States  soldiers,  they  do  not  execute 
them. 

Captain  Lyon,  who  commands,  is  an  exceedingly 
prompt  and  efficient  officer,  attends  strictly  to  his  busi 
ness,  exhibits  no  hunger  for  newspaper  fame,  and  seems 
to  act  with  an  eye  single  to  the  honor  of  the  Government 
he  has  served  so  long  and  so  faithfully. 

Among  our  regiments  is  the  Missouri  First,  Colonel 
Frank  P.  Blair.  Three  companies  are  made  up  of  Ger 
man  Turners — the  most  accomplished  of  gymnasts.  They 
are  sinewy,  muscular  fellows,  with  deep  chests  and  well- 
knit  frames.  Every  man  is  an  athlete.  To-day  a  party, 
by  way  of  exercise,  suddenly  formed  a  human  pyramid, 
and  commenced  running  up,  like  squirrels,  over  each 
other' s  shoulders,  to  the  high  veranda  upon  the  second 
story  of  their  building.  In  climbing  a  wall,  they  would 
not  require  scaling-ladders.  There  are  also  two  compa 
nies  from  the  Far  West — old  trappers  and  hunters,  who 
have  smelt  gunpowder  in  Indian  warfare. 

Colonel  Blair's  dry,  epigrammatic  humor  bewilders 
some  of  his  visitors.  I  was  sitting  in  his  head-quarters 
when  a  St.  Louis  Secessionist  entered.  Like  nearly  all  of 
them,  he  now  pretends  to  be  a  Union  man,  but  is  very 
tender  on  the  subject  of  State  Rights,  arid  wonderfully 
solicitous  about  the  Constitution.  He  remarked  : 

c '  I  am  a  Union  man,  but  I  believe  in  State  Rights.  I 
believe  a  State  may  dissolve  its  connection  with  the  Gov 
ernment  if  it  wants  to." 

"O  yes,"  replied  Blair,  pulling  away  at  his  ugly 
mustache,  "yes,  you  can  go  out  if  you  want  to.  Cer 
tainly  you  can  secede.  But,  my  friend,  you  can't  take 
with  you  one  foot  of  American  soil !" 


140  MISSOURI   AND   THE    SLAVEHOLDERS.  [1861. 

A  citizen  of  Lexington  introduced  himself,  saying  : 
"I  am  a  loyal  man,  ready  to  fight  for  the  Union  ;  Ibut 
I  am  pro-slavery — I  own  niggers." 

"Well,  sir,"  replied  Blair,  with  the  faintest  sugges 
tion  of  a  smile  on  his  plain,  grim  face,  "you  have  a  right 
to.  We  don't  like  negroes  very  much  ourselves.  If 
you  do,  that's  a  matter  of  taste.  It  is  one  of  your 
privileges.  But  if  you  gentlemen  who  own  negroes 
attempt  to  take  the  State  of  Missouri  out  of  the  Union,  in 
about  six  months  you  will  be  the  most  -  -  niggeiiess 
set  of  individuals  that  you  ever  heard  of!" 


1861.]  GENERAL  MCCLELLAN  AT  CAIRO.  141 


CHAPTER  X. 

Only  we  want  a  little  personal  strength, 
And  pause  until  these  Ilebels,  now  afoot, 
Come  underneath  the  yoke  of  Government— 

KING  HENRY  IV. 

CAIKO,  as  the  key  to  the  lower  Mississippi  valley,  is 
the  most  important  strategic  point  in  the  West.  Imme 
diately  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  it  was  occupied 
by  our  troops. 

As  a  place  of  residence  it  was  never  inviting.  To-day 
its  offenses  smell  to  heaven  as  rankly  as  when  Dickens 
evoked  it,  from  horrible  obscurity,  as  the  "Eden"  of 
Martin  Chuzzlewit.  The  low,  marshy,  boot-shaped  site 
is  protected  from  the  overflow  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Ohio  by  levees.  Its  jet-black  soil  generates  every 
species  of  insect  and  reptile  known  to  science  or  imagina 
tion.  Its  atmosphere  is  never  sweet  or  pure. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  Major-General  George  B. 
McClellan,  commander  of  all  the  forces  west  of  the  Al- 
leghanies,  reached  Cairo  on  a  visit  of  inspection.  His 
late  victories  in  Western  Virginia  had  established  his 
reputation  for  the  time,  as  an  officer  of  great  capacity 
and  promise,  notwithstanding  the  high  heroics  of  his 
ambitious  proclamations.  This  was  before  Bull  Run, 
and  before  the  New  York  journals,  by  absurdly  pro 
nouncing  him  "the  Young  Napoleon,"  raised  public 
expectation  to  an  embarrassing  and  unreasonable  hight. 

In  those  days,  every  eye  was  looking  for  the  Coming 
Man,  every  ear  listening  for  his  approaching  footsteps, 


142  A  LITTLE  SPEECH-MAKING.  [ISGI. 

which  were  to  make  the  earth  tremble.  Men  judged, 
by  old  standards,  that  the  Hour  must  have  its  Hero. 
They  had  not  learned  that,  in  a  country  like  ours,  what 
ever  is  accomplished  must  be  the  work  of  the  loyal 
millions,  not  of  any  one,  or  two,  or  twenty  generals 
and  statesmen. 

McClellan  was  enthusiastically  received,  and,  to  the 
strains  of  the  "  Star  Spangled  Banner,"  escorted  to  head 
quarters.  There,  General  Prentiss,  who  had  so  decided 
a  penchant  for  speech-making,  that  cynics  declared  he 
always  kept  a  particular  stump  in  front  of  his  office 
for  a  rostrum,  welcomed  him  with  some  rhetorical  re 
marks  : 

*  *     *     *     "My  command  are  all  anxious  to  taste  those  dangers 
which  war  ushers  in — not  that  they  court  danger,  but  that  they  love 
their  country.     We  have  toiled  in  the  mud,  we  have  drilled  in  the  burn- 
ing  sun.     Many  of  us  are  ragged — all  of  us  are  poor.      But  we  look 
anxiously  for  the  order  to  move,  trusting  that  we  may  be  allowed  to  lead 
the  division." 

The  soldiers  applauded  enthusiastically — for  in  those 
days  the  anxiety  to  be  in  the  earliest  battles  was  in 
tense.  The  impression  was  almost  universal  throughout 
the  North  that  the  war  was  to  be  very  brief.  Officers , 
and  men  in  the  army  feared  they  would  have  no  oppor 
tunity  to  participate  in  any  fighting  ! 

McClellan  responded  to  Prentiss  and  his  officers  in 
the  same  strain : 

*  *     *     "  We  shall  meet  again  upon  the  tented  field ;  and  Illinois, 
which  sent  forth  a  JIardin  and  a  Bissell,  will,  I  doubt  not,  give  a  good 
account  of  herself  to  her  sister  States.     Her  fame  is  world- wide :  in  your 
hands,  gentlemen,  I  am  sure  it  will  not  suffer.     The  advance  is  due  to 
you." 

Then  there  was  more  applause,  and  afterward  a  re- 
View  of  the  brigade. 


1861.]       PENALTY  OF  WRITING  FOR  THE  TRIBUNE.        143 

*.  t 

General  McClellan  is  stoutly  built,  short,  with  light 
hair,  blue  eyes,  full,  fresh,  almost  boyish  face,  and  lip 
tufted  with  a  brown  mustache.  His  urbane  manner 
truly  indicates  the  peculiar  amiability  of  character  and 
yielding  disposition  which  have  hurt  him  more  than  all 
other  causes.  An  officer  once  assured  me  that  McClellan 
had  said  to  him:  "My  friends  have  injured  me  a 
thousand  times  more  than  my  enemies."  It  was  cer 
tainly  true. 

Now,  seeing  his  features  the  first  time,  I  scanned  them 
anxiously  for  lineaments  of  greatness.  I  saw  a  pleasant, 
mild,  moony  face,  with  one  cheek  distended  by  tobacco  ; 
but  nothing  which  appeared  strong  or  striking.  Tinc 
tured  largely  with  the  general  belief  in  his  military 
genius,  I  imputed  the  failure  only  to  my  own  incapacity 
for  reading  "Nature's  infinite  book  of  secrecy." 

One  evening,  at  Cairo,  a  man,  whose  worn  face, 
shaggy  beard,  matted  locks,  and  tattered  clothing 
marked  him  as  one  of  the  constantly  arriving  refugees, 
sought  me  and  asked : 

"Can  you  tell  me  the  name  of  The  Tribune  corre 
spondent  who  passed  through  Memphis  last  February  f ' 

He  was  informed  that  that  pleasure  had  been  mine. 

"Then,"  said  he,  "I  have  been  lying  in  jail  at  Mem 
phis  about  fifty  days  chiefly  on  your  account !  The 
three  or  four  letters  which  you  wrote  from  there  were 
peculiarly  bitter.  Of  course,  I  was  not  aware  of  your 
presence,  and  I  sent  one  to  The  Tribune,  which  was  also 
very  emphatic.  The  Secessionists  suspected  me  not  only 
of  the  one  which  I  did  write,  but  also  of  yours.  They 
pounced  on  me  and  put  me  in  jail.  After  the  disband 
ing  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  I  was  brought  before 
the  City  Recorder,  who  assured  me  from  the  bench  of 
his  profound  regrets  that  he  could  find  no  law  for  hang- 


144  A  LOYAL  GIRL'S  ASSISTANCE.  [isei. 

ing  me !  I  would  have  been  there  until  this  time,  but 
for  the  assistance  of  a  young  lady,  through  whom  I  suc 
ceeded  in  "bribing  an  officer  of  the  jail,  and  making  my 
escape.  I  was  hidden  in  Memphis  for  several  days, 
then  left  the  city  in  disguise,  and  have  worked  my  way, 
chiefly  on  foot,  aided  by  negroes  and  Union  families, 
through  the  woods  of  Tennessee  and  the  swamps  of  Mis 
souri  up  to  God's  country." 

The  refugee  seemed  to  be  not  only  in  good  health,  but 
also  in  excellent  spirits,  and  I  replied : 

"I  am  very  sorry  for  your  misfortunes;  but  if  the 
Eeebls  must  have  one  of  us,  I  am  very  glad  that  it  was 
not  I." 

Nearly  four  years  later,  this  gentleman  turned  the 
tables  on  me  very  handsomely.  After  my  twenty 
months  imprisonment  in  Rebel  hands,  among  a  crowd  of 
visitors  he  walked  into  my  room  at  Cincinnati  one  morn 
ing,  and  greeted  me  warmly. 

"  You  do  not  remember  me,  do  you  ?"  he  asked. 

"  I  recognize  your  face, but  cannot  recall  your  name." 

"  Well,  my  name  is  Collins.  Once,  when  I  escaped 
from  the  South,  you  congratulated  me  at  Cairo.  ISTow,  I 
congratulate  you,  and  I  can  do  it  with  all  my  heart, 
in  exactly  the  same  words.  I  am  very  sorry  for  your 
misfortunes  ;  but  if  the  Rebels  must  have  one  of  us,  I 
am  very  glad  that  it  was  not  I !" 

After  our  troops  captured  Memphis,  I  encountered 
the  young  lady  who  aided  Mr.  Collins  in  escaping.  She 
was  enthusiastically  loyal,  but  her  feeling  had  been 
repressed  for  nearly  two  years,  when  the  arrival  of  our 
forces  loosened  her  tongue.  She  began  to  utter  her 
long-stifled  Union  views,  and  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion 
that  she  has  not  stopped  yet.  She  is  now  the  wife  of  an 
officer  in  the  United  States  service. 


1861.]  THE  FASCINATIONS  OF  CAIRO.  145 

CAIRO,  May  29. 

A  drizzly,  mudcly,  melancholy  day.  Never  other 
wise  than  forlorn,  Cairo  is  pre-eminently  lugubrious 
during  a  mild  rain.  In  dry  weather,  even  when  glowing 
like  a  furnace,  you  may  find  amusement  in  the  contem 
plation  of  the  high- water  mark  upon  trees  and  houses, 
the  stilted-plank  sidewalks,  the  half- submerged  swamps, 
and  other  diluvian  features  of  this  nondescript,  saucer- 
like,  terraqueous  town.  You  may  speculate  upon  the 
exact  amount  of  fever  and  ague  generated  to  the  acre,  or 
inquire  whether  the  whisky  saloons,  which  spring  up 
like  mushrooms,  are  indigenous  or  exotic. 

In  downright  wet  weather  }^ou  may  calculate  how 
soon  the  streets  will  be  navigable,  and  the  effect  upon 
the  amphibious  natives.  It  is  difficult  to  realize  that 
anybody  was  ever  born  here,  or  looks  upon  Cairo  as 
home.  Washington  Irving  records  that  the  old  Dutch 
housewives  of  New  York  scrubbed  their  floors  until 
many  "grew  to  have  webbed  fingers,  like  unto  a  duck." 
I  suspect  the  Cairo  babies  must  have  fins. 

Long-suffering,  much-abused  Cairo  !  What  wounds 
hast  thou  not  received  from  the  Parthian  arrows  of 
tourists!  "The  season  here,"  wrote  poor  John  Phenix, 
bitterest  of  all,  "is  usually  opened  with  great  eclat  by 
small-pox,  continued  spiritedly  by  cholera,  and  closed 
up  brilliantly  with  yellow  fever.  Sweet  spot !" 

Theorists  long  predicted  that  the  great  metropolis  of 
the  Mississippi  valley — the  granary  of  the  world — must 
ultimately  rise  here.  Many  proved  their  faith  by  pecu 
niary  investments,  which  are  likely  to  be  permanent. 

Possessed  by  a  similar  delusion,  Illinois,  for  years, 

strove  to  legislate  Alton  into  a  vast  commercial  mart. 

But,  in  spite  of  their  unequaled  geographical  positions, 

Cairo  and  Alton  still  languish  in  obscurity,  while  St. 

10 


146  THE  DEATH  OF  DOUGLAS.  [isei. 

Louis  and  Cincinnati,  twin  queens  of  this  imperial  val 
ley,  succeed  to  their  grand  heritage. 

Nature  settles  these  matters  by  laws  which,  though 
hidden,  are  inexorable.  Even  that  mysterious,  semi- 
civilized  race,  which  swarmed  in  this  valley  centuries 
before  the  American  Indian,  established  their  great  cen 
ters  of  population  where  ours  are  to-day. 

June  4. 

Intelligence  of  the  death  of  Senator  Douglas,  received 
last  evening,  excites  profound  and  universal  regret. 
Though  totally  unfamiliar  with  books,  Mr.  Douglas  thor 
oughly  knew  the  masses  of  the  Northwest,  down  to  their 
minutest  sympathies  and  prejudices.  Beyond  any  of  his 
cotemporaries,  he  was  a  man  of  the  people,  and  the  peo 
ple  loved  him.  Never  before  could  he  have  died  so  op 
portunely  for  his  posthumous  fame.  Nothing  in  his  life 
became  him  like  the  leaving  of  it.  His  last  speech,  in 
Chicago,  was  a  fervid,  stirring  appeal  for  the  Union  and 
the  Government,  and  for  crushing  out  treason  with  an 
iron  hand.  His  emphatic  loyalty  exerted  great  influence 
in  Illinois.  His  life-long  opponents  forget  the  asperities 
of  the  past,  in  the  halo  of  patriotism  around  his  setting 
sun,  and  unite,  with  those  who  always  idolized  him,  in 
common  tribute  to  his  memory. 

We  have  very  direct  intelligence  from  Tennessee. 
The  western  districts  are  all  Secession.  Middle  Ten 
nessee  is  about  equally  divided.  East  Tennessee,  a 
mountain  region,  containing  few  slaves,  is  inhabited  by 
a  hardy,  primitive,  industrious  race.  They  are  thor 
oughly,  enthusiastically  loyal.  * 

*  Through  severest  trials,  and  cruel  neglect  from  our  Government, 
they  never  swerved  a  hair's-breadth.  Before  our  troops  opened  East 
Tennessee,  enough  left  their  homes,  coming  stealthily  through  the  moun 
tains  and  enlisting  in  the  Union  army,  to  make  sixteen  regiments. 


i86i.]  A  CLEAR-HEADED  NEGRO.  147 

The  felicitous  decision  of  Major- General  Butler,  that 
slaves  of  the  enemy  are  "  contraband  of  war,"  disturbs 
the  Rebels  not  a  little,  even  in  the  West.  A  friend  just 
from  Louisiana,  relates  an  amusing  conversation  between 
a  planter  and  an  old,  trusted  slave. 

"Sam,"  said  his  master,  "I  must  furnish  some  nig 
gers  to  go  down  and  work  on  the  fortifications  at  the 
Balize.  Which  of  the  boys  had  I  better  send  ?" 

"Well,  massa,"  replied  the  old  servant,  shaking  his 
head  oracularly,  "I  doesn't  know  about  dat.  War's 
comin'  on,  and  dey  might  be  killed.  Ought  to  get  Irish 
men  to  do  dat  work,  anyhow.  I  reckon  you'  d  better  not 
send  any  ob  de  boys — tell  you  what,  massa,  nigger  pro 
perty' s  mighty  onsartin  dese  times  !" 

Scores  of  fugitives  from  the  South  arrive  here  daily, 
with  the  old  stories  of  insult,  indignity,  and  outrage. 
Several  have  come  in  with  their  heads  shaved.  To  you, 
my  reader,  who  have  never  seen  a  case  of  the  kind,  it 
may  seem  a  trivial  matter  for  a  person  merely  to  have 
one  side  of  his  head  laid  bare,  but  it  is  a  peculiarly 
repulsive  spectacle.  The  first  time  you  look  upon  it,  or 
on  those  worse  cases,  where  free-born  men  of  Saxon 
blood  bear  fresh  marks  of  the  lash,  you  will  involun 
tarily  clinch  your  teeth,  and  thank  God  that  the  system 
which  bears  such  infernal  fruits  is  rushing  upon  its  own 
destruction. 

Jhne  8. 

The  heated  term  is  upon  us.  We  are  amid  upper, 
nether,  and  surrounding  fires.  At  eight,  this  morning, 
the  mercury  indicated  eighty  degrees  in  the  shade.  How 
high  it  has  gone  since,  I  dare  not  conjecture  ;  but  a  friend 
insists  that  the  sun  will  roast  eggs  to-day  upon  any  door 
step  in  town.  I  am  a  little  incredulous  as  to  that,  though 
a  pair  of  smarting,  half-blistered  hands — the  result  of  a 


148  A  REVIEW  OF  THE  TROOPS.  [isei. 

ten  minutes'  walk  in  its  devouring  breath  —  protest 
against  absolute  unbelief.  Officers  who  served  in  the 
war  with  Mexico  declare  they  never  found  the  heat  so 
oppressive  in  that  climate  as  it  is  here.  The  raw  troops 
on  duty,  who  are  sweltering  in  woolen  shirts  and  cloth 
caps,  bear  it  wonderfully  well. 

A  number  of  Chicago  ladies  are  already  here,  acting 
as  nurses  in  the  hospital.  The  dull  eyes  of  the  invalids 
brighten  at  their  approach,  and  voices  grow  husky  in 
attempting  to  express  their  gratitude.  According  to  Car- 
tyle,  "  in  a  revolution  we  are  all  savages  still ;  civiliza 
tion  has  only  sharpened  our  claws ;' '  but  this  tender 
care  for  the  soldier  is  the  one  redeeming  feature  of  mod 
ern  war. 

June  12. 

A  review  of  all  the  troops.  The  double  ranks  of  well- 
knit  men,  with  shining  muskets  and  bayonets,  stretch 
off  in  perspective  for  more  than  a  mile.  After  prelimi 
nary  evolutions,  at  the  word  of  command,  the  lines  sud 
denly  break  and  wheel  into  column  by  companies,  and 
marching  commences.  You  see  two  long  parallel  col 
umns  of  men  moving  in  opposite  directions,  with  an 
open  space  between.  Their  legs,  in  motion,  look  for  all 
the  world  like  the  shuttles  in  some  great  Lowell  factory. 

The  artillerists  fire  each  of  their  six-pounders  three 
times  a  minute.  They  discharge  one,  dismount  it,  lay  it 
upon  the  ground,  remove  the  wheels  from  the  carriage, 
drop  flat  upon  their  faces,  then  spring  up,  remount  the 
gun,  ready  for  reloading  or  removing,  all  in  forty-five 
seconds. 

Standing  three  hundred  yards  from  the  cannon,  the 
column  of  smoke,  white  at  first,  but  rapidly  changing  to 
blue,  shoots  out  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  from  the  muz 
zle  before  you  hear  the  report. 


1861.]  A  "RUNNIN'  NIGGER!"  149 

The  flying  flags,  playing  bands,  galloping  officers,  long 
lines  of  our  boys  in  blue,  and  sharp  metallic  reports, 
impress  you  with  something  of  the  pomp  and  circum 
stance  of  glorious  war. 

But  Captain  Jenny,  a  young  engineer  officer,  quietly 
remarks,  that  he  once  witnessed  a  review  of  seventy 
thousand  French  troops  in  the  Champ  de  Mars,  and  in 
1859  saw  the  army  of  seventy-five  thousand  men  enter 
Paris,  returning  from  the  Italian  wars.  Colonel  Wag 
ner,  an  old  Hungarian  officer,  who  has  participated  in 
twenty-three  engagements,  assures  you  that  he  has 
looked  upon  a  parade  of  one  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand  men,  whereupon  our  little  force  of  five  thousand 
appears  insignificant.  Nevertheless,  it  exceeds  Jackson's 
recruits  at  New  Orleans,  and  is  larger  than  the  effective 
force  of  Scott  during  the  Mexican  war. 

Our  first  contraband  arrived  here  in  a  skiff  last  night, 
bearing  unmistakable  evidences  of  long  travel.  He  says 
he  came  from  Mississippi,  and  the  cotton-seed  in  his 
woolly  head  corroborates  the  statement.  I  first  saw  him 
beside  the  guard-house,  surrounded  by  a  party  of  sol 
diers.  He  answered  my  salutation  with  "  Good  evenin', 
Mass'r,"  removing  his  old  wool  hat  from  his  grizzly 
head.  He  smiled  all  over  his  face,  and  bowed  all 
through  his  body,  as  he  depressed  his  head,  slightly 
lifting  his  left  foot,  with  the  gesture  which  only  the  un 
mistakable  darkey  can  give. 

"  Well,  uncle,  have  you  joined  the  army  f 

"Yes,  mass'r"  (with  another  African  salaam). 

"  Are  you  going  to  fight  ?" 

"No,  mass'r,  I'se  not  a  fightin'  nigger,  I'se  a  run- 
nin'  nigger !" 

"Are  you  not  afraid  of  starving,  up  here  among  the 
Abolitionists?" 


150  CAPTURING  A  REBEL  FLAG.  [isei. 

"  Beckon  not,  mass'r — not  much." 

And  Sambo  gave  a  concluding  bow,  indescribable 
drollery  sliming  through  his  sooty  face,  bisected  by  two 
rows  of  glittering  ivory. 

June  13. 

A  reconnoitering  party  went  down  the  Mississippi 
yesterday  upon  a  Government  steamer,  under  command 
of  Colonel  Richard  J.  Oglesby,  colloquially  known  among 
the  Illinois  sovereigns  of  the  prairie  as  "Dick  Oglesby." 

Twenty  miles  below  Cairo,  we  slowly  passed  the 
town  of  Columbus,  Ky.,  on  the  highest  bluffs  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  village  is  a  straggling  collection  of 
brick  blocks,  frame  houses,  and  whisky  saloons.  'It  con 
tains  no  Rebel  forces,  though  seven  thousand  are  at 
Union  City,  Tenn.,  twenty-five  miles  distant. 

On  a  tall  staff,  a  few  yards  from  the  river,  a  great 
Secession  flag,  with  its  eight  stars  and  three  stripes, 
Was  triumphantly  flying. 

Turning  back,  after  steaming  two  miles  below,  the 
boat  was  stopped  at  the  landing  ;  the  captain  went  on 
shore,  cut  down  the  flag,  and  brought  it  on  board,  amid 
cheers  from  our  troops.  The  Columbians  looked  on  in 
grim  silence — all  save  four  Union  ladies,  who, 

"  Faithful  among  the  faithless  only  they," 

waved  handkerchiefs  joyfully  from  a  neighboring  bluff. 

Each  star  of  the  flag  bore  the  name  in  pencil  of 
the  young  lady  who  sewed  it  on.  The  Maggies,  and 
Julias,  and  Sues,  and  Kates,  and  Sallies,  who  thus  left 
their  autographs  upon  their  handiwork,  did  not  antici 
pate  that  it  would  so  soon  be  scrutinized  by  Yankee 
soldiers.  And,  doubtless,  "  Julia  K—  — ,"  the  damsel 
whose  star  I  pilfered,  scarcely  aspired  to  the  honor  of 
furnishing  a  relic  for  The  Tribune  cabinet. 


1861.]  THE  RETRIBUTIONS  OF  TIME.  151 


CHAPTER     XI. 

And  thus  the  whirligig  of  Time  brings  in  his  revenges. 

TWELFTH  NIGHT,  OB  WHAT  Ton  WILL. 

Bloody  instructions,  which  being  taught,  return 
To  plague  the  inventors. — MACBETH. 

Ox  the  15th  of  June  I  returned  from  Cairo  to  St. 
Louis.  Lyon  had  gone  up  the  Missouri  River  with  an 
expedition,  which  was  all  fitted  out  and  started  in  a  few 
hours.  Lyon  was  very  much  in  earnest,  and  he  knew  the 
supreme  value  of  time  in  the  outset  of  a  war. 

How  just  are  the  retributions  of  history  !  Virginia 
originated  State  Rights  run-mad,  which  culminated 
in  Secession.  Behold  her  ground  between  the  upper 
and  nether  mill-stones  !  Missouri  lighted  the  lires  of 
civil  war  in  Kansas ;  now  they  "blazed  with  tenfold 
fury  upon  her  own  soil.  She  sent  forth  hordes  to  mob 
printing-presses,  overawe  the  ballot-box,  substitute  the 
bowie-knife  and  revolver  for  the  civil  law.  Now,  her 
own  area  gleamed  with  bayonets  ;  the  Rebel  newspaper 
was  suppressed  by  the  file  of  soldiers,  civil  process  sup 
planted  by  the  unpitying  military  arm. 

Governor  Claiborne  F.  Jackson,  in  1855,  led  a  raid 
into  Kansas,  which  overthrew  the  civil  authorities,  and 
drove  citizens  from  the  polls.  Now,  the  poisoned  chalice 
was  commended  to  his  own  lips.  A  hunted  fugitive 
from  his  home  and  his  chair  of  office,  he  was  deserted 
by  friends,  ruined  in  fortune,  and  the  halter  waited  for 
his  neck.  Thomas  C.  Reynolds,  late  Lieutenant- Gov 
ernor,  by  advocating  the  right  of  Secession,  did  much  to 
poison  the  public  mind  of  the  South.  He,  too,  found 


152  A  RAILROAD  REMINISCENCE. 

his  reward  in  disgrace  and  outlawry  ;  unable  to  come 
within  the  borders  of  the  State  which  so  lately  delight 
ed  to  do  him  honor  ! 

I  followed  Ly on' s  Expedition  by  the  Pacific  railway. 
The  president  of  the  road  told  me  a  droll  story,  which 
illustrates  the  folly  that  governed  the  location  of  the  rail 
way  system  of  Missouri.  The  Southwest  Branch  is 
about  a  hundred  miles  long,  through  a  very  thinly  set 
tled  region.  For  the  first  week  after  the  cars  commenced 
running  over  it,  they  carried  only  about  six  passengers, 
and  no  freight  except  a  live  bear  and  a  jar  of  honey. 
The  honey  was  carried  free,  and  the  freight  on  Bruin 
was  fifty  cents.  Shut  up  in  the  single  freight  car,  during 
the  trip,  he  ate  all  the  honey  !  The  company  were  com 
pelled  to  pay  two  dollars  for  the  loss  of  that  saccharine 
esculent.  Thus  their  first  week's  profits  on  freight 
amounted  to  precisely  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  ledger. 

The  Rebels  had  now  evacuated  Jefferson  City,  and 
our  own  troops,  commanded  by  Colonel  Boernstein,  a  Grer- 
man  editor,  author,  and  theatrical  manager,  of  St.  Louis, 
were  in  peaceable  possession.  The  soldiers  were  cooking 
upon  the  grass  in  the  rear  of  the  Capitol,  standing  in  the 
shade  of  its  portico  and  rotunda,  lying  on  beds  of  hay  in 
its  passages,  and  upon  carpets  in  the  legislative  halls. 
They  reposed  in  all  its  rooms,  from  the  subterranean 
vaults  to  the  little  circular  chamber  in  the  dome. 

Governor  and  Legislature  were  fled.  With  Colonel 
Boernstein,  I  went  through  the  executive  mansion,  which 
had  been  deserted  in  hot  haste.  Sofas  were  overturned, 
carpets  torn  up  and  littered  with  letters  and  public 
documents.  Tables,  chairs,  damask  curtains,  cigar- 
boxes,  champagne-bottles,  ink-stands,  books,  private 
letters,  and  family  knick-knacks,  were  scattered  every- 


1861.]         UNTAINTED  WITH  "B.  REPUBLICANISM."        153 

where  in  chaotic  confusion.  Some  of  the  Governor's  cor 
respondence  was  amusing.  The  first  letter  I  noticed 
was  a  model  of  brevity.  Here  it  is  —  its  virgin  paper 
unsullied  by  the  faintest  touch  of  "  B.  Republicanism." 

"  JEFFEKSON  CITY,  fed.  21nd  1861. 

"  to  his  Honour  Gov.  C.  F.  JACKSOX.  —  Please  Accept  My  Compli* 
ments.  AVith  a  little  good  Old  Bourbon  Whisky  Cocktail.  Made  up  Ex 
pressly  in  St  Louis,  fear  it  not.  it  is  good.  And  besides  it  is  not  even 
tainted  with  B.  Eepublicanism.  Respectfully  yours, 

"  P.  NATJGHTON." 

There  was  a  ludicrous  disparity  between  the  evi 
dences  of  sudden  flight  on  all  sides  and  the  pompous 
language  of  the  Governor'  s  latest  State  paper,  which  lay 
upon  the  piano  in  the  drawing-room  : 


,  therefore,  I,  C.  F.  Jackson,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Mis 
souri,  do  issue  this  my  proclamation,  calling  the  militia  of  the  State,  to 
the  number  of  FIFTY  THOUSAND,  into  the  service  of  the  State.  *  *  * 
Puse,  then,  arid  drive  out  ignoniiniously  the  invaders!" 

Beds  were  unmade,  dishes  unwashed,  silver  forks 
and  spoons,  belonging  to  the  State,  scattered  here  and 
there.  The  only  things  that  appeared  undisturbed  were 
the  Star  Spangled  Banner  and  the  national  escutcheon, 
both  frescoed  upon  the  plaster  of  the  gubernatorial  bed 
room. 

As  we  walked  through  the  deserted  rooms,  a  hollow 
echo  answered  to  the  tramp  of  the  colonel  and  his  lieu 
tenant,  and  to  the  dull  clank  of  their  scabbards  against 
the  furniture. 

General  Lyon  opened  the  war  in  the  West  by  the 
battle  of  Booneville.  It  lasted  only  a  few  minutes,  and 
the  undisciplined  and  half-armed  Rebel  troops,  after  a 
faint  show  of  resistance,  retreated  toward  the  South. 
Lyon'  s  command  lost  only  eleven  men. 


154  A  BELLIGERENT  CHAPLAIN.  [ISGI. 

During  the  engagement,  the  Key.  William  A.  Pile, 
Chaplain  of  the  First  Missouri  Infantry,  with  a  detail  of 
four  men,  was  looking  after  the  wounded,  when,  coming 
suddenly  upon  a  party  of  twenty -four  Rebels,  he  ordered 
them  to  surrender.  Strangely  enough,  they  laid  down 
their  arms,  and  were  all  brought,  prisoners,  to  General 
Lyon's  head-quarters  by  their  five  captors,  headed  by 
the  reverend  representative  of  the  Church  militant  and 
the  Church  triumphant. 

Messrs.  Thomas  W.  Knox  and  Lucien  J.  Barnes, 
army  correspondents,  zealous  to  see  the  first  battle, 
narrowly  escaped  Avith  their  lives.  Appearing  upon  a 
hill,  surveying  the  conflict  through  their  field-glasses, 
they  were  mistaken  by  General  Lyon  for  scouts  of  the 
enemy.  He  ordered  his  sharpshooters  to  pick  them  off, 
when  one  of  his  aids  recognized  them. 

BOOXEVILLE,  Mo.,  June  21. 

The  First  Iowa  Infantry  has  arrived  here.  On  the 
way,  several  slaves,  who  came  to  its  camp  for  refuge, 
Were  sent  back  to  their  masters. 

The  regiment  contains  many  educated  men,  and  that 
large  percentage  of  physicians,  lawyers,  and  editors, 
found  in  every  far- western  community.  On  the  way 
here,  they  indulged  in  a  number  of  freaks  which  star 
tled  the  natives.  At  Macon,  Mo.,  they  took  posses 
sion  of  The  Register,  a  hot  Secession  sheet,  and,  having 
no  less  than  forty  printers  in  their  ranks,  promptly 
issued  a  spicy  loyal  journal,  called  Our  Wliole  Union. 
The  valedictory,  which  the  Iowa  boys  addressed  to  Mr. 
Johnson,  the  fugitive  editor,  in  his  own  paper,  is  worth 
perusing. 

"  VALEDICTORY. 

"Johnson,  wherever  you  are — whether  lurking  in  recesses  of  the 
dim  woods,  or  fleeing  a  fugitive  on  open  plain,  under  the  broad  canopy 


i86i.]  HUMORS  OF  THE  IOWA  SOLDIERS.  155 

of  Heaven — good-by !  We  never  saw  your  countenance — never  expect 
to — never  want  to — but,  for  all  that,  we  won't  be  proud  ;  so,  Johnson, 
good-by,  and  take  care  of  yourself! 

"  We're  going  to  leave  you,  Johnson,  without  so  much  as  looking 
into  your  honest  eyes,  or  clasping  your  manly  hand — even  without 
giving  utterance,  to  your  face,  of  'God  bless  you!'  We're  right  sorry, 
we  are,  that  you  didn't  stay  to  attend  to  your  domestic  and  other  affairs, 
and  not  skulk  away  and  lose  yourself,  never  to  return.  Oh,  Johnson! 
why  did  you — how  could  you  do  this  ? 

"Johnson,  we  leave  you  to-night.  We're  going  where  bullets  are 
thick  and  mosquitos  thicker.  We  may  never  return.  If  we  do  not, 
old  boy,  remember  us.  We  sat  at  your  table ;  we  stole  from  your 
*  Dictionary  of  Latin  Quotations;'  we  wrote  Union  articles  with  your 
pen,  your  ink,  on  your  paper.  We  printed  them  on  your  press.  Our 
boys  set'  em  up  with  your  types,  used  your  galleys,  your  'shoot 
ing-sticks,'  your  'chases,'  your  'quads,'  your  'spaces,'  your  'rules,' 
your  every  thing.  We  even  drank  some  poor  whisky  out  of  your 
bottle. 

"And  now,  Johnson,  after  doing  all  this  for  you,  you  won't  forget 
us,  will  you?  Keep  us  in  mind.  Remember  us  in  your  evening  prayers, 
and  your  morning  prayers,  too,  when  you  say  them,  if  you  do  say  them. 
If  you  put  up  a  petition  at  mid-day,  don't  forget  us  then ;  or  if  you 
awake  in  the  solemn  stillness  of  the  night,  to  implore  a  benison  upon  the 
absent,  remember  us  then ! 

"  Once  more,  Johnson — our  heart  pains  us  to  say  it — that  sorrow 
ful  word ! — but  once  more  and  forever,  Johnson,  Gooo-By !  If  you 
come  our  way,  Call!  Johnson,  adieu!" 

One  of  tlie  privates  in  the  regular  army  lias  just  been 
punished  with  fifty  lashes  on  the  bare  back,  for  taking 
from  a  private  house  a  lady' s  furs  and  a  silk  dress. 

This  morning  I  passed  a  group  of  the  Iowa  privates, 
resting  beside  the  road,  along  which  they  were  bringing 
buckets  of  water  to  their  camp.  They  were  debating 
the  question  whether  a  heavy  national  debt  tends  to 
weaken  or  to  strengthen  a  Government !  These  are  the 
men  whom  the  southern  Press  calls  "ignorant  merce- 


156  CAMP  TALES  OF  THE  MARVELOUS. 

ST.  Loms,  July  12. 

TJie  Missouri  State  Journal,  which  made  no  dis 
guise  of  its  sympathy  with  the  Rebels,  is  at  last  sup 
pressed  "by  the  military  authorities.  It  was  done  to 
day,  by  order  of  General  Lyon,  who  is  pursuing 
the  Rebels  near  Springfield,  in  the  southwest  corner  of 
the  State.  Secessionists  denounce  it  as  a  military  des 
potism,  but  the  loyal  citizens  are  gratified. 

Are  you  fond  of  the  marvelous?  If  so,  here  is  a 
camp  story  about  Colonel  Sigel's  late  engagement  at 
Carthage : 

A  private  in  one  of  his  companies  (so  runs  the  tale), 
while  loading  and  firing,  was  lying  flat  upon  his  face 
to  avoid  the  balls  of  the  Rebels,  when  a  shot  from  one 
of  their  six-pounders  plunged  into  the  ground  right  be 
side  him,  plowed  through  under  him,  about  six  inches 
below  the  surface,  came  out  on  the  other  side,  and  pur 
sued  its  winding  way.  It  did  not  hurt  a  hair  of  his 
head,  but,  in  something  less  than  a  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
whirled  him  over  upon  his  back  ! 

If  you  shake  your  head,  save  your  incredulity  for 
tills :  A  captain  assures  me  that  in  the  same  battle  he 
saw  one  of  Sigel's  artillerists  struck  by  a  shot  which 
cut  off  both  legs ;  but  that  he  promptly  raised  him 
self  half  up,  rammed  the  charge  home  in  his  gun,  with 
drew  the  ramrod,  and  then  fell  back,  dead !  This  is, 
at*  least,  melo- dramatic,  and  only  paralleled  by  the  bal 
lad-hero 


-"  Of  doleful  dumps, 


Who,  when  his  legs  were  both  cut  oflj 
Still  fought  upon  his  stumps." 


1361.]  CORN  NOT  COTTON  is  KING.  157 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Who  can  be  *  *  *  *  * 

Loyal  and  neutral  In  a  moment?    No  man. 

MACBBTH. 

Why,  this  it  Is  when  men  are  ruled  by  women. 

ItlCIIARD  III. 

IT  was  a  relief  to  escape  the  excitement  and  bitterness 
of  Missouri,  and  spend  a  few  quiet  days  in  the  free 
States.  Despite  Rebel  predictions,  grass  did  not  grow 
in  the  streets  of  Chicago.  In  sooth,  it  wore  neither 
an  Arcadian  nor  a  funereal  aspect.  Palatial  buildings 
were  everywhere  rising ;  sixty  railway  trains  arrived 
and  departed  daily ;  hotels  were  crowded  with  guests ; 
and  the  voice  of  the  artisan  was  heard  in  the  land. 
Michigan  Avenue,  the  finest  drive  in  America,  skirt 
ing  the  lake  shore  for  a  mile  and  a  half,  was  crowded 
every  evening  with  swift  vehicles,  and  its  sidewalks 
thronged  with  leisurely  pedestrians.  It  afforded  scope 
to  one  of  the  two  leading  characteristics  of  Chicago  resi 
dents,  which  are,  holding  the  ribbons  and  leaving  out 
the  latch'string. 

I  did  not  hear  a  single  cry  of  "Bread  or  Blood  !"  As 
the  city  had  over  two  million  bushels  of  corn  in  store, 
and  had  received  eighteen  million  bushels  of  grain 
during  the  previous  six  months,  starvation  was  hardly 
imminent.  War  or  peace,  currency  or  no  currency, 
breadstuff's  will  find  a  market.  Corn,  not  cotton,  is 
king ;  the  great  Northwest,  instead  of  Dixie  Land, 
wields  the  sceptre  of  imperial  power. 

The  elasticity  of  the  new  States  is  wonderful.  Wis 
consin  and  Illinois  had  lost  about  ten  millions  of  dollars 


158  CURIOUS  REMINISCENCES  OF  CHICAGO.  [isei. 

through  the  depreciation  of  their  currency  within  a  few 
months.  It  caused  embarrassment  and  stringency,  but 
no  wreck  or  ruin. 

Reminiscences  of  the  financial  chaos  were  entertain 
ing.  New  York  exchange  once  reached  thirty  per  cent. 
The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  paid  twenty-two 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  premium  on  a  single  draft. 
For  a  few  weeks  before  the  crash,  everybody  was  afraid 
of  the  currency,  and  yet  everybody  received  it.  People 
were  seized  with  a  sudden  desire  to  pay  up.  The 
course  of  nature  was  reversed ;  debtors  absolutely 
pursued  their  creditors,  and  creditors  dodged  them  as 
swindlers  dodge  the  sheriff.  Parsimonious  husbands 
supplied  their  wives  bounteously  with  means  to  do  fam 
ily  shopping  for  months  ahead.  There  was  a  "run'' 
upon  those  feminine  paradises,  the  dry-goods  stores, 
while  the  merchants  were  by  no  means  anxious  to  sell. 

Suddenly  prices  went  up,  as  if  by  magic.  Then  came 
a  grand  crisis.  Currency  dropped  fifty  per  cent.,  and 
one  morning  the  city  woke  up  to  find  itself  poorer  by 
just  half  than  it  was  the  night  before.  The  banks,  with 
their  usual  feline  sagacity,  alighted  upon  their  feet,  while 
depositors  had  to  stand  the  loss. 

Persons  who  settled  in  Chicago  when  it  was  only  a 
military  post,  many  hundred  miles  in  the  Indian  country, 
relate  stories  of  the  days  when  they  sometimes  spent 
three  months  on  schooners  coming  from  Buffalo.  Later 
settlers,  too,  offer  curious  reminiscences.  In  1855,  a  mer 
chant  purchased  a  tract  of  iinimproved  land  near  the 
lake,  outside  the  city  limits,  for  twelve  hundred  dollars, 
one-fourth  in  cash.  Before  his  next  payment,  a  railroad 
traversed  one  sandy  worthless  corner  of  it,  and  the  com 
pany  paid  him  damages  to  the  amount  of  eleven  hun 
dred  dollars.  Before  the  end  of  the  third  year,  when 


1861.]  YlSIT   TO    THE    GllAVE    OF   DOUGLAS.  159 

his  last  installment  of  three  hundred  dollars  "became 
due,  he  sold  the  land  to  a  company  of  speculators  for 
twenty-one  thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  It  is  now 
assessed  at  something  over  one  hundred  thousand. 

On  a  July  day,  so  cold  that  fires  were  comforting 
within  doors,  and  overcoats  and  buffalo  robes  requisite 
without,  I  visited  the  grave  of  Senator  Douglas,  un 
marked  as  yet  by  monumental  stone.  He  rests  near 
his  old  home,  and  a  few  yards  from  the  lake,  which  was 
sobbing  and  moaning  in  stormy  passion  as  the  great, 
white-fringed  waves  chased  each  other  upon  the  sandy 
shore. 

With  the  arrival  of  each  railway  train  from  the  east, 
long  files  of  immigrants  from  Norway  and  northern 
Germany  come  pouring  up  Dearborn  street,  gazing  cu 
riously  and  hopefully  at  their  new  Land  of  Promise. 
One  of  the  many  railroad  lines  had  brought  twenty-five 
hundred  within  two  weeks.  There  were  gray-haired 
men  and  young  children.  All  were  attired  neatly,  es 
pecially  the  women,  with  snow-white  kerchiefs  about 
their  heads. 

They  were  bound,  mainly,  for  Wisconsin  and  Minne 
sota.  Men  and  women  are  the  best  wealth  of  a  new 
country.  Though  nearly  all  poor,  these  brought,  with 
the  fair  hair  and  blue  eyes  of  their  fatherland,  honesty, 
frugality,  and  industry,  as  their  contribution  to  that 
great  crucible  which,  after  all  its  strange  elements  are 
fused,  shall  pour  forth  the  pure  and  shining  metal  of 
American  Character. 

Missouri,  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  had  two 
hundred  thousand  Germans  in  a  population  of  little 
more  than  one  million.  Almost  to  a  man,  they  were 
loyal,  and  among  the  first  who  sprang  to  arms. 

In  the  South,  they  were  always  regarded  with  sus- 


160  SOCIAL  HABITS  OF  THE  GERMANS.  [ISGI. 

picion.  The  Rebels  succeeded  in  dragooning  but  very 
few  of  them  into  their  ranks.  Honor  to  the  loyal  Ger 
mans  ! 

According  to  some  unknown  philosopher,  "  an  Eng 
lishman  or  a  Yankee  is  capital ;  an  Irishman  is  labor ; 
but  a  German  is  capital  and  labor  both."  Cincinnati,  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  contained  about  seventy 
thousand  German  citizens,  who  for  many  years  had  con 
tributed  largely  to  her  growth  and  prosperity. 

A  visit  to  their  distinctive  locality,  called  ' '  Over  the 
Rhine,"  with  its  German  daily  papers,  German  signs, 
and  German  conversation,  is  a  peep  at  Faderland. 

Cincinnati  is  nearer  than  Hamburg,  the  Miami  canal 
more  readily  crossed  than  the  Atlantic,  and  that  "  sweet 
German  accent,"  with  which  General  Scott  was  once 
enraptured,  is  no  less  musical  in  the  Queen  City  than  in 
the  land  of  Schiller  and  Goethe.  Why,  then,  should  one 
go  to  Germany,  unless,  indeed,  like  Bayard  Taylor,  he 
goes  for  a  wife  \  The  multitudinous  maidens — light-eyed 
and  blonde-haired — in  these  German  streets,  would  seem 
to  remove  even  that  excuse. 

When  Young  America  becomes  jovial,  he  takes  four 
or  five  boon  companions  to  a  drinking  saloon,  pours 
down  half  a  glass  of  raw  brandy,  and  lights  a  cigar. 
Continuing  this  programme  through  the  day,  he  ends, 
perhaps,  by  being  carried  home  on  a  shutter  or  con 
ducted  to  the  watch-house. 

But  the  German,  at  the  close  of  the  summer  day, 
strolls,  with  his  wife  and  two  or  three  of  his  twelve 
children  (the  orthodox  number  in  well-regulated  Teu 
tonic  families)  to  one  of  the  great  airy  halls  or  gardens 
abounding  in  his  portion  of  the  city.  Calling  for  Rhein 
wine,  Catawba,  or  "  zwel  glass  lager  bier  und  zwei pret 
zel"  they  sit  an  hour  or  two,  chatting  with  friends,  and 


i8Gi.]  THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  CINCINNATI.  161 

then  return  to  their  homes  like  rational  beings  after 
rational  enjoyment.  The  halls  contain  hundreds  of 
people,  who  gesticulate  more  and  talk  louder  during 
their  mildest  social  intercourse  than  the  same  number  of 
Americans  would  in  an  affray  causing  the  murder  of 
half  the  company ;  but  the  presence  of  women  and 
children  guarantees  decorous  language  and  deportment. 

The  laws  of  migration  are  curious.  One  is,  that 
people  ordinarily  go  due  west.  The  Massachusetts  man 
goes  to  northern  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  or  Minnesota ;  the 
Ohioan  to  Kansas  ;  the  Tennesseean  to  southern  Mis 
souri  ;  the  Mississippian  to  Texas.  Great  excitements, 
like  those  of  Kansas  and  California,  draw  men  off  their 
parallel  of  latitude  ;  but  this  is  the  general  law.  An 
other  is,  that  the  Irish  remain  near  the  sea-coast,  while 
the  Germans  seek  the  interior.  They  constitute  four- 
fifths  of  the  foreign  population  of  every  western  city. 

In  1788,  a  few  months  before  the  first  settlement  of 
Cincinnati,  seven  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land  were 
bought  for  five  hundred  dollars.  The  tract  is  now  the 
heart  of  the  city,  and  appraised  at  many  millions.  As  it 
passed  from  hand  to  hand,  colossal  fortunes  were  reali 
zed  from  it ;  but  its  original  purchaser,  then  one  of  the 
largest  western  land-owners,  at  his  death  did  not  leave 
property  enough  to  secure  against  want  his  surviving 
son.  Until  1862,  that  son  resided  in  Cincinnati,  a  pen 
sioner  upon  the  bounty  of  relatives.  As,  in  the  autumn 
of  life,  he  walked  the  streets  of  that  busy  city,  it  must 
have  been  a  strange  reflection  that  among  all  its  broad 
acres  of  which  his  father  was  sole  proprietor,  he  did  not 
own  land  enough  for  his  last  resting-place.  "  Give  him 
a  little  earth  for  charity  !" 

Many  high  artificial  mounds,  circular  and  elliptical, 

stood  here  when  the  city  was  founded.     In  after  years, 
11 


162  A  CITY  FOUNDED  BY  A  WOMAN.  [ISGI. 

as  they  were  leveled,  one  by  one,  they  revealed  relics 
of  that  ancient  and  comparatively  civilized  race,  which 
occupied  this  region  before  the  Indian,  and  was  probably 
identical  with  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico. 

Upon  the  site  of  one  of  these  mounds  is  Pike' s  Opera 
House,  a  gorgeous  edifice,  erected  at  an  expense  of  half 
a  million  of  dollars,  by  a  Cincinnati  distiller,  who,  fifteen 
years  before,  could  not  obtain  credit  for  his  first  dray- 
load  of  whisky-barrels.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  theaters  in 
the  world  ;  but  the  site  has  more  interest  than  the  build 
ing.  What  volumes  of  unwritten  history  has  that  spot 
witnessed,  which  supports  a  temple  of  art  and  fashion 
for  the  men  and  women  of  to-day,  was  once  a  post  from 
which  Indian  sentinels  overlooked  the  c '  dark  and 
bloody  ground"  beyond  the  river,  and,  in  earlier  ages, 
an  altar  where  priests  of  a  semi-barbaric  race  performed 
mystic  rites  to  propitiate  heathen  gods  ! 

Cincinnati  was  built  by  a  woman.  Its  founder  was 
neither  carpenter  nor  speculator,  but  in  the  legitimate 
feminine  pursuit  of  winning  hearts.  Seventy  years  ago, 
Columbia,  North  Bend,  and  Cincinnati — all  splendid 
cities  on  paper — were  rivals,  each  aspiring  to  be  the 
metropolis  of  the  West.  Columbia  was  largest,  North 
Bend  most  favorably  located,  and  Cincinnati  least  prom 
ising  of  all. 

But  an  army  officer,  sent  out  to  establish  a  military 
post  for  protecting  frontier  settlers  against  Indians,  was 
searching  for  a  site.  Fascinated  by  the  charms  of  a 
dark-eyed  beauty — wife  of  one  of  the  North  Bend 
settlers — that  location  impressed  him  favorably,  and  he 
made  it  head- quarters.  The  husband,  disliking  the 
officer's  pointed  attentions,  came  to  Cincinnati  and  set 
tled — 'thus,  he  supposed,  removing  his  wife  from  tempta 
tion. 


1861.]        THE  ASPIRATIONS  OF  THE  CINCINNATIAN.         163 

But  as  Mark  Antony  threw  the  world  away  for  Cleo 
patra's  lips,  this  humbler  son  of  Mars  counted  the 
military  advantages  of  North  Bend  as  nothing  compared 
with  his  charmer's  eyes.  He  promptly  followed  to  Cin 
cinnati,  and  erected  Fort  Washington  within  the  present 
city  limits.  Proximity  to  a  military  post  settled  the 
question,  as  it  has  all  similar  ones  in  the  history  of  the 
West.  Now  Cincinnati  is  the  largest  inland  city  upon 
the  continent ;  Columbia  is  an  insignificant  village,  and 
North  Bend  an  excellent  farm. 

In  architecture,  Cincinnati  is  superior  to  its  western 
rivals,  and  rapidly  gaining  upon  the  most  beautiful 
seaboard  cities.  Some  of  its  squares  are  unexcelled  in 
America.  A  few  public  buildings  are  imposing ;  but  its 
best  structures  have  been  erected  by  private  enterprise. 
The  Cincinnatlan  is  expansive.  Narrow  quarters  tor 
ture  him.  He  can  live  in  a  cottage,  but  he  must  do 
business  in  a  palace.  An  inferior  brick  building  is  the 
specter  of  his  life,  and  a  freestone  block  his  undying 
ambition. 

From  the  Queen  City  I  went  to  Louisville.  Though 
communication  with  the  South  had  been  cut  off  by  every 
other  route,  the  railroad  was  open  thence  to  Nashville. 

Kentucky  was  disputed  ground.  Treason  and  Loy 
alty  jostled  each  other  in  strange  proximity.  At  the 
breakfast  table,  one  looked  up  from  his  New  York 
paper,  forty-eight  hours  old,  to  see  his  nearest  neigh 
bor  perusing  T/ie  Charleston  Mercury.  He  found  The 
Louisville  Courier  urging  the  people  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  Government.  The  Journal,  published  just 
across  the  street,  advised  Union  men  to  arm  themselves, 
and  announced  that  any  of  them  wanting  first-class  re 
volvers  could  learn  something  to  their  advantage  by 
calling  upon  its  editor.  In  the  telegraph-office,  the 


164  TREASON  AND  LOYALTY  IN  LOUISVILLE. 

loyal  agent  of  the  Associated  Press,  who  made  up  dis 
patches  for  the  North,  chatted  with  the  Secessionist, 
who  spiced  his  news  for  the  southern  palate.  On  the 
street,  one  heard  Union  men  advocate  the  hanging  of 
Governor  Magoffin,  and  declare  that  he  and  his  fellow- 
traitors  should  find  the  collision  they  threatened  a  bloody 
business.  At  the  same  moment,  some  inebriated  ' '  Cava 
lier"  reeled  by,  shouting  uproariously  "  Huzza  for  Jeff. 
Davis  !" 

Here,  a  group  of  pale,  long-haired  young  men  was 
pointed  out  as  enlisted  Kebel  soldiers,  just  leaving  for 
the  South.  There,  a  troop  of  the  sinewy,  long-limbed 
mountaineers  of  Kentucky  and  East  Tennessee,  marched 
sturdily  toward  the  river,  to  join  the  loyal  forces  upon 
the  Indiana  shore.  Two  or  three  State  Guards  (Seces 
sion),  with  muskets  on  their  shoulders,  were  closely 
followed  by  a  trio  of  Home  Guards  (Union),  also  armed. 
It  was  wonderful  that,  with  all  these  crowding  combus 
tibles,  no  explosion  had  yet  occurred  in  the  Kentucky 
powder-magazine. 

While  Secessionists  were  numerous,  Louisville,  at 
heart  loyal,  everywhere  displayed  the  national  flag. 
Yet,  although  the  people  tore  to  pieces  a  Secession 
banner,  which  floated  from  a  private  dwelling,  they 
were  very  tolerant  toward  the  Rebels,  who  openly  re 
cruited  for  the  Southern  service.  Imagine  a  man 
huzzaing  for  President  Lincoln  and  advertising  a  Fed 
eral  recruiting- office  in  any  city  controlled  by  the  Con 
federates  ! 

"The  real  governor  of  Kentucky,"  said  a  southern 
paper,  "  is  not  Beriali  Magoffin,  but  George  D.  Prentice." 
In  spite  of  his  "  neutrality,"  which  for  a  time  threat 
ened  to  stretch  out  to  the  crack  of  doom,  Mr.  Prentice 
was  a  thorn  in  the  ,side  of  the  enemy.  His  strong  in- 


1861.]         PREXTICE  OF  THE  LOUISVILLE  JOURNAL.          165 

fluence,  through.  The  LouismlU  Journal,  was  felt  through 
out  the  State. 

Visiting  his  editorial  rooms,  I  found  him  over  an 
appalling  pile  of  public  and  private  documents,  dictating 
an  article  for  his  paper.  Many  years  ago,  an  attack  of 
paralysis  nearly  disabled  his  right  hand,  and  compelled 
him  ever  after  to  employ  an  amanuensis. 

His  small,  round  face  was  fringed  with  dark  hair,  a 
little  silvered  by  age ;  but  his  eyes  gleamed  with  their 
early  lire,  and  his  conversation  scintillated  with  that 
ready  wit  which  made  him  the  most  famous  paragraph- 
ist  in  the  world.  His  manner  was  exceedingly  quiet 
and  modest.  For  about  three-fourths  of  the  year,  he 
was  one  of  the  hardest  workers  in  the  country ;  often 
sitting  at  his  table  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  writing  two 
or  three  columns  for  a  morning  issue. 

At  this  time,  the  Kentucky  Unionists,  advocating 
only  "neutrality,"  dared  not  urge  open  and  uncompro 
mising  support  of  the  Government.  When  President 
Lincoln  first  called  for  troops,  The  Journal  denounced 
his  appeal  in  terms  almost  worthy  of  The  Charleston 
Mercury,  expressing  its  "  mingled  amazement  and  in 
dignation."  Of  course  the  Kentuckians  were  subjected 
to  very  bitter  criticism.  Mr.  Prentice  said  to  me : 

"You  misapprehend  us  in  the  North.  We  are  just 
as  much  for  the  Union  as  you  are.  Those  of  us  who 
pray,  pray  for  it ;  those  of  us  who  fight,  are  going  to 
fight  for  it.  But  we  know  our  own  people.  They  re 
quire  very  tender  handling.  Just  trust  us  and  let  us 
alone,  and  you  shall  see  us  come  out  all  right  by-and- 

by." 

The  State  election,  held  a  few  weeks  after,  exposed 
the  groundless  alarm  of  the  leading  politicians.  It  re 
sulted  in  returning  to  Congress,  from  every  district  but 


166  FIRST  UNION  TROOPS  OF  KENTUCKY.  [isei. 

one,  zealous  Union  men.  Afterward  the  State  fur 
nished  troops  whenever  they  were  called  for,  and,  in 
spite  of  her  timid  leaders,  finally  yielded  gracefully  to 
the  inexorable  decree  of  the  war,  touching  her  pet  in 
stitution  of  Slavery. 

I  paid  a  visit  to  the  encampment  of  the  Kentucky 
Union  troops,  on  the  Indiana  side  of  the  Ohio,  opposite 
Louisville.  "Camp  Joe  Holt"  was  on  a  high,  grassy 
plateau.  Unfailing  springs  supplied  it  with  pure  water, 
and  trees  of  beech,  oak,  elm,  ash,  maple,  and  sycamore, 
overhung  it  with  grateful  shade.  The  prospective 
soldiers  were  lying  about  on  the  ground,  or  reading 
and  writing  in  their  tents. 

General  Rousseau,  who  was  sitting  upon  the  grass, 
chatting  with  a  visitor,  looked  the  Kentuckian.  Large 
head,  with  straight,  dark  hair  and  mustache  ;  eye  and 
mouth  full  of  determination ;  broad  chest,  huge,  erect, 
manly  frame. 

His  men  were  sinewy  fellows,  with  serious,  earnest 
faces.  Most  of  them  were  from  the  mountain  districts. 
Many  had  been  hunters  from  boyhood,  and  could  bring 
a  squirrel  from  the  tallest  tree  with  their  old  rifles. 
Byron's  description  of  their  ancestral  backwoodsmen 
seemed  to  fit  them  exactly  : 

"  And  tall  and  strong  and  swift  of  foot  were  they, 

Beyond  the  dwarfing  city's  pale  abortions, 
Because  their  thoughts  had  never  been  the  prey 

Of  care  or  gain ;  the  green  woods  were  their  portions. 
Simple  they  were,  not  savage ;  and  their  rifles, 
Though  very  true,  were  yet  not  used  for  trifles." 

The  history  of  this  brigade  was  characteristic  of  the 
times.  Rousseau  scouted  "neutrality"  from  the  outset. 
On  the  21st  of  May,  he  said  from  his  place  in  the  Ken 
tucky  Senate : 


isGi.]      STRUGGLE  IN  THE  KENTUCKY  LEGISLATURE.       167 

"If  \vc  have  a  Government,  let  it  be  maintained  and  obeyed.  If  a 
factious  minority  undertakes  to  override  the  will  of  the  majority  and 
rob  us  of  our  constitutional  rights,  let  it  be  put  down — peaceably  if  wo 
can,  but  forcibly  if  we  must.  *  *  *  Let  me  tell  you,  sir,  Kentucky  will 
not  'go  out!'  She  will  not  stampede.  Secessionists  must  invent 
something  new,  before  they  can  either  frighten  or  drag  her  out  of  the 
Union.  We  shall  be  but  too  happy  to  keep  peace,  but  we  cannot  leave 
the  Union  of  our  fathers.  When  Kentucky  goes  down,  it  will  be  in 
blood!  Let  that  be  understood." 

Iii  that  Legislature,  the  struggle  between  the  Seces 
sionists  and  the  Loyalists  was  fierce,  protracted,  and 
uncertain.  Each  day  had  its  accidents,  incidents, 
telegraphic  and  newspaper  excitements,  upon  which  the 
action  of  the  body  seemed  to  depend. 

In  firm  and  determined  men,  the  two  parties  were 
about  equally  divided ;  but  there  were  a  good  many 
"floats,"  who  held  the  balance  of  power.  These  men 
were  very  tenderly  nursed  by  the  Loyalists. 

The  Secessionists  frequently  proposed  to  go  into 
secret  session,  but  the  Union  men  steadfastly  refused. 
Eousseau  declared  in  the  Senate  that  if  they  closed  the 
doors  he  would  break  them  open.  As  he  stands  about 
six  feet  two,  and  is  very  muscular,  the  threat  had  some 
significance. 

Buckner,  Tighlman,  and  Hanson  * — all  afterward  gen 
erals  in  the  Rebel  army — led  the  Secessionists.  They 

*  The  leniency  of  the  Government  toward  these  men  was  remark 
able.  For  many  months  after  the  war  began,  Breckinridge,  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  Burnett,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  uttered 
defiant  treason,  for  which  they  were  not  only  pardoned,  but  paid  by  the 
Government  they  were  attempting  to  overthrow.  As  late  as  August, 
1861,  after  Bull  Run,  after  Wilson  Creek,  Buckner  visited  Washington, 
was  allowed  to  inspect  the  fortifications,  and  went  almost  directly  thence 
to  Richmond.  When  he  next  returned  to  Kentucky,  it  was  at  the  head 
of  an  invading  Rebel  army. 


168  WHAT  REBEL  LEADERS  PRETENDED.  [isci. 

professed  to  "be  loyal,  and  were  very  slirewd  and  plau 
sible.  They  induced  hundreds  of  young  men  to  join  the 
State-Guard,  which  they  were  organizing  to  force  Ken 
tucky  out  of  the  Union,  though  its  ostensible  object  was 
to  assure  "neutrality." 

' '  State  Rights ' '  was  their  watchword.  ' '  For  Ken 
tucky  neutrality,"  first;  and,  should  the  conflict  be 
forced  upon  them,  "For  the  South  against  the  North." 
They  worked  artfully  upon  the  southern  partiality  for 
the  doctrine  that  allegiance  is  due  first  to  the  State, 
and  only  secondly  to  the  National  Government, 

Governor  Magofiin  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Porter 
were  bitter  Rebels.  The  Legislature  made  a  heavy  ap 
propriation  for  arming  the  State,  but  practically  dis 
placed  the  Governor,  by  appointing  five  loyal  commis 
sioners  to  control  the  fund  and  its  expenditure. 

In  Louisville,  the  Unionists  secretly  organized  the 
"Loyal  League,"  which  became  very  large  ;  but  the  Se 
cessionists,  also,  were  noisy  and  numerous,  firm  and 
defiant. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  Rousseau  started  for  Washington, 
to  obtain  authority  to  raise  troops  in  Kentucky.  At  Cin 
cinnati,  he  met  Colonel  Thomas  J.  Key,  then  Judge- Ad 
vocate  of  Ohio,  on  duty  with  General  McClellan.  Key 
was  alarmed,  and  asked  if  it  were  not  better  to  keep 
Kentucky  in  the  Union  by  voting,  than  by  fighting. 
Rousseau  replied : 

' '  As  fast  as  we  take  one  vote,  and  settle  the  matter, 
another,  in  some  form,  is  proposed.  While  we  are  vo 
ting,  the  traitors  are  enlisting  soldiers,  preparing  to 
throttle  Kentucky  and  precipitate  her  into  Revolution 
as  they  have  the  other  southern  States.  It  is  our  duty 
to  see  that  we  are  not  left  powerless  at  the  mercy  of 
those  who  will  butcher  us  whenever  they  can." 


1861.]  ROUSSEAU'S  VISIT  TO  WASHINGTON.  169 

Key  declared  that  lie  would  ruin  every  tiling  by  his 
rashness.  By  invitation,  Rousseau  called  on  the  com 
mander  of  the  Western  Department.  During  the  con 
versation,  McClellan  remarked  that  Buckner  had  spent 
the  previous  night  with  him.  Rousseau  replied  that 
Buckner  was  a  hypocrite  and  traitor.  McClellan  re 
joined  that  he  thought  him  an  honorable  gentleman. 
They  had  served  in  Mexico  together,  and  were  old  per 
sonal  friends. 

He  added:  uBut  I  did  draw  him  over  the  coals  for 
saying  he  would  not  only  drive  the  Rebels  out  of  Ken 
tucky,  but  also  the  Federal  troops." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Rousseau,  "it  would  once  have 
been  considered  pretty  nearty  treason  for  a  citizen  to 
tight  the  United  States  army  and  levy  war  against  the 
National  Government!" 

When  Rousseau  reached  Washington,  he  found  that 
Colonel  Key,  who  had  frankly  announced  his  determina 
tion  to  oppose  his  project,  was  already  there.  He  had 
an  interview  with  the  President,  General  Cameron,  and 
Mr.  Seward.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  Cameron 
sat  with  his  coat  off  during  the  conversation. 

As  usual,  before  proceeding  to  business,  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  his  "little  story"  to  enjoy.  He  shook  hands  cor 
dially  with  his  visitor,  and  asked,  in  great  glee  : 

"  Rousseau,  where  did  you  get  that  joke  about  Sena 
tor  Johnson  1" 

"The  joke,  Mr.  President,  was  too  good  to  keep. 
Johnson  told  it  himself." 

It  was  this:  Dr.  John  M.  Johnson,  senator  from 
Paducah,  wrote  to  Mr.  Lincoln  a  rhetorical  document,  in 
the  usual  style  of  the  Rebels.  In  behalf  of  the  sovereign 
State,  he  entered  his  solemn  and  emphatic  protest  against 
the  planting  of  cannon  at  Cairo,  declaring  that  the  guns 


170       His  INTERVIEW  WITH  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.       [isei. 

actually  pointed  in  the  direction  of  tlie  sacred  soil  of 
Kentucky  ! 

In  an  exquisitely  pithy  autograph  letter,  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied,  if  lie  had  known  earlier  that  Cairo,  Illinois,  was 
in  Dr.  Johnson's  Kentucky  Senatorial  District,  he  cer 
tainly  should  not  }iave  established  either  the  guns  or  the 
troops  there  !  Singularly  enough  —  for  a  keen  sense  of 
humor  was  very  rare  among  our  "erring  "brethren"  — 
Johnson  appreciated  the  joke. 

While  Rousseau  was  urging  the  necessity  of  enlisting 
troops,  he  remarked  : 

"I  have  half  pretended  to  submit  to  Kentucky  neu 
trality,  but,  in  discussing  the  matter  before  the  people, 
while  apparently  standing  upon  the  line,  I  have  almost 


This  word  was  not  in  the  Cabinet  vocabulary.  Gen 
eral  Cameron  looked  inquiringly  at  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  was 
supposed  to  be  familiar  with  the  dialect  of  his  native 
State. 

"  General,"  asked  the  President,  "you  don't  know 
what  'poke'  means?  Why,  when  you  play  marbles, 
you  are  required  to  shoot  from  a  mark  on  the  ground  ; 
and  when  you  reach  over  with  your  hand,  beyond  the 
line,  that  is  poking  /" 

Cameron  favored  enlistments  in  Kentucky,  without 
delay.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  : 

"General,  don't  be  too  hasty;  you  know  we  have 
seen  another  man  to-day,  and  we  should  act  with  cau 
tion."  Rousseau  explained  : 

"  The  masses  in  Kentucky  are  loyal.  I  can  get  as  many 
soldiers  as  are  wanted  ;  but  if  the  Rebels  raise  troops, 
while  we  do  not,  our  young  men  will  go  into  their  army, 
taking  the  sympathies  of  kindred  and  friends,  and  may 
finally  cause  the  State  to  secede.  It  is  of  vital  impor- 


1861.]  TIMIDITY  OF  KENTUCKY  UNIONISTS.  171 

tance  that  we  give  loyal  direction  to  the  sentiment  of  our 
people." 

At  the  next  interview,  the  President  showed  him  th?s 
indorsement  on  the  back  of  one  of  his  papers : 

"When  Judge  Pirtle,  James  Gu  rie,  George  D.  Prentice,  ITarney, 
the  Speeds,  and  the  Ballards  shall  think  it  proper  to  raise  troops-  for  the 
United  States  service  in  Kentucky,  Lovell  II.  Rousseau  is  authorized  to 
do  so." 

"  How  will  that  do,  Rousseau  ?" 

'  i  Those  are  good  men,  Mr.  President,  loyal  men ;  "but 
perhaps  some  of  the  rest  of  us,  who  were  born  and 
reared  in  Kentucky,  are  just  as  good  Union  men  as  they 
are,  and  know  just  as  much  about  the  State.  If  you 
want  troops,  I  can  raise  them,  and  I  will  raise  them.  If 
you  do  not  want  them,  or  do  not  want  to  give  me  the 
authority,  why  that  ends  the  matter." 

Finally,  through  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Chase,  who 
steadfastly  favored  the  project,  and  of  Secretary  Cameron, 
the  authority  was  given. 

A  few  Kentucky  Loyalists  were  firm  and  outspoken. 
But  General  Leslie  Coombs  was  a  good  specimen  of  the 
whole.  When  asked  for  a  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  he 
wrote  :  "Kousseau  is  loyal  and  brave,  but  a  little  too 
much  for  coercion  for  these  parts." 

After  Rousseau  returned,  with  permission  to  raise 
twenty  companies,  Tlie  Louisville  Courier,  whose  veneer 
of  loyalty  was  very  thin,  denounced  the  effort  bitterly. 
Even  The  Louisville  Journal  derided  it  until  half  a 
regiment  was  in  camp. 

A  meeting  of  leading  Loyalists  of  the  State  was  held 
in  Louisville,  at  the  office  of  James  Speed,  since  At 
torney  General  of  the  United  States.  Garrett  Davis, 
Bramlette,  Boyle,  and  most  of  the  Louisville  men, 


172  LOYALTY  OF  JUDGE  LUSK.  [ISGI. 

were  against  the  project.  They  feared  it  would  give 
the  State  to  the  Secessionists  at  the  approaching  'elec 
tion.  Speed  and  the  Ballards  were  for  it.  So  was 
Samuel  Lusk,  an  old  judge  from  Garrard  County,  who 
sat  quietly  as  long  as  he  could  during  the  discussion, 
then  jumped  up,  and  "bringing  his  hand  heavily  down 
on  the  table,  exclaimed  : 

'  c  Can' t  have  two  regiments  for  the  old  flag !  By ! 

sir,  he  shall  have  thirty  !" 

A  resolution  was  finally  adopted  that,  when  the  time 
came,  they  all  wished  Kousseau  to  raise  and  command 
the  troops,  but  that,  for  the  present,  it  would  be  impol 
itic  and  improper  to  commence  enlisting  in  Kentucky. 

Greatly  against  Ms  own  will,  and  declaring  that  he 
never  was  so  humiliated  in  his  life,  Rousseau  established 
his  camp  on  the  Indiana  shore.  After  the  election,  some 
Secession  sympathizers,  learning  that  he  proposed  to 
bring  his  men  over  to  Louisville,  protested  very  earn 
estly,  begging  him  to  desist,  and  thus  avoid  bloodshed, 
which  they  declared  certain. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  umy  men,  like  yourselves, 
are  Kentuckians.  I  am  a  K^ntuckian.  Our  homes  are 
on  Kentucky  soil.  We  have  organized  in  defense  of  our 
common  country  ;  and  bloodshed  is  just  the  business 
we  are  drilling  for.  If  anybody  in  the  city  of  Louis 
ville  thinks  it  judicious  to  begin  it  when  we  arrive,  I 
tell  you,  before  God,  you  shall  all  have  enough  of  it 
before  you  get  through  !" 

The  next  day  he  marched  his  brigade  unmolested 
through  the  city.  Afterward,  upon  many  battle-fields, 
its  honorable  fame  and  Rousseau's  two  stars  were  fairly 
won  and  worthily  worn. 


i86i.]        CAMPAIGNING  IN  THE  KANAWHA  VALLEY.         173 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

The  hum  of  either  army  stilly  sounds, 
That  the  fixed  sentinels  almost  receive 
The  secret  whispers  of  each  other's  watch. 

KINO  HKNEY  V. 

I  SPENT  the  last  days  of  July,  in  Western  Virginia, 
with  the  command  of  General  J.  D.  Cox,  which  was 
pursuing  Henry  A.  Wise  in  hot  haste  up  the  valley  of  the 
Kanawha.  There  had  been  a  few  little  skirmishes, 
which,  in  those  early  days,  we  were  wont  to  call  battles. 

Like  all  mountain  regions,  the  Kanawha  valley  was 
extremely  loyal.  Flags  were  flying,  and  the  people 
manifested  intense  delight  at  the  approach  of  our  army. 
We  were  very  close  upon  the  flying  enemy ;  indeed, 
more  than  once  our  cavalry  boys  ate  hot  breakfasts 
which  the  Rebels  had  cooked  for  themselves. 

At  a  farm-house,  two  miles  west  of  Charleston,  a 
dozen  natives  were  sitting  upon  the  door- step  as  our 
column  passed.  The  farmer  shook  hands  with  us  very 
cordially.  "  I  am  glad  to  see  the  Federal  army,"  said 
he ;  "I  have  been  hunted  like  a  dog,  and  compelled  to 
hide  in  the  mountains,  because  I  loved  the  Union."  His 
wife  exclaimed,  "Thank  God,  you  have  come  at  last, 
and  the  day  of  our  deliverance  is  here.  I  always  said 
that  the  Lord  was  on  our  side,  and  that  he  would  bring 
us  through  safely." 

Two  of  the  women  were  ardent  Rebels.  They  did 
not  blame  the  native-born  Yankees,  but  wished  that 
every  southerner  in  our  ranks  might  be  killed.  Just 
then  one  of  our  soldiers,  whose  home  was  in  that 
county,  passed  by  the  door- step,  on  his  way  to  the  well 


174          A  BLOODTHIRSTY  FEMALE  SECESSIONIST. 

for  a  canteen  of  water.     One  of  the  women  said  to  me, 
with  eyes  that  meant  it : 

"  I  hope  lie  will  Ibe  killed  !  If  I  had  a  pistol  I  would 
shoot  him.  Why !  you  have  a  revolver  right  here  in 
your  belt,  haven't  you  ?  If  I  seen  it  before,  I  would 
have  used  it  upon  him  !" 

Suggesting  that  I  might  have  interfered  with  such 
an  attempt,  I  asked  : 

"  Do  you  think  you  could  hit  him  ?" 

"  0,  yes  !  I  have  been  practicing  lately  for  just  such 
a  purpose." 

Her  companion  assured  me  that  she  prayed  every 
night  and  morning  for  Jefferson  Davis.  If  his  armies 
were  driven  out  of  Virginia,  she  would  go  and  live  in 
one  of  the  Gulf  States.  She  had  a  brother  and  a  lover 
in  General  Wise's  army,  and  gave  us  their  names, 
with  a  very  earnest  request  to  see  them  kindly  treated, 
should  they  be  taken  prisoners.  When  we  parted,  she 
shook  my  hand,  with:  "Well,  I  hope  no  harm  will 
befall  you,  if  you  are  an  Abolitionist !" 

An  old  citizen,  who  had  been  imprisoned  for  Union 
sentiments,  was  overcome  with  joy  at  the  sight  of  our 
troops.  He  mounted  a  great  rock  by  the  roadside,  and 
extemporized  a  speech,  in  which  thanks  to  the  Union 
army  and  the  Lord  curiously  intermingled. 

Women,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  told  us  how  anx 
iously  they  had  waited  for  the  flag ;  how  their  houses 
had  been  robbed,  their  husbands  hunted,  imprisoned, 
and  impressed.  Negroes  joined  extravagantly  in  the 
huzzaing,  swinging  flags  as  a  woodman  swings  his  ax, 
bending  themselves  almost  double  with  shouts  of 
laughter,  and  exclamations  of  "Hurrah  for  Mass'r 
Lincoln  !" 

Thirteen  miles  above  Charleston,  at  the  head  of  navi- 


1861.]  A  WOMAN  IN  DISGUISE.  175 

gallon,  we  left  behind  what  we  grandiloquently  called 
"  the  fleet,"  It  consisted  of  exactly  four  little  stern- 
wheel  steamboats. 

The  people  of  these  mountain  regions  use  the  old 
currency  of  New  England,  and  talk  of  "fourpence 
ha'pennies"  and  "ninepences." 

Our  road  continued  along  the  river-bank,  where  the 
ranges  of  overhanging  hills  began  to  break  into  regular, 
densely  timbered,  pyramidal  spurs.  The  weather  was 
very  sultry.  How  the  sun  smote  us  in  that  close,  nar 
row  valley  !  The  accouterments  of  each  soldier  weighed 
about  thirty  pounds,  and  made  a  day's  march  of  twenty 
miles  an  arduous  task. 

A  private  who  had  served  in  the  First  Kentucky 
Infantry*  for  three  months,  proved  to  be  of  the  wrong 
sex.  She  performed  camp  duties  with  great  fortitude, 
and  never  fell  out  of  the  ranks  during  the  severest 
marches.  She  was  small  in  stature,  and  kept  her  coat 
buttoned  to  her  chin.  She  first  excited  suspicion  by  her 
feminine  method  of  putting  on  her  stockings  ;  and  when 
handed  over  to  the  surgeon  proved  to  be  a  woman, 
about  twenty  years  old.  She  was  discharged  from  the 
regiment,  but  sent  to  Columbus  upon  suspicion,  excited 
by  some  of  her  remarks,  that  she  was  a  spy  of  the 
Rebels. 

At  Cannelton,  a  hundred  slaves  were  employed  in  the 
coal-oil  works— two  long,  begrimed,  dilapidated  build 
ings,  with  a  few  wretched  houses  hard  by.  Nobody 
was  visible,  except  the  negroes.  When  I  asked  one 
of  them — "  Where  are  all  the  white  people  1"  he  replied, 
with  a  broad  grin— 

"Done  gone,  mass'r." 

*  So  called,  though  nearly  all  its  members  came  from  Cincinnati. 


176  EXTRAVAGANT  JOY  OF  THE  NEGROES.          [ISGI. 

A  black  woman,  whom  we  encountered  on  the  road, 
was  asked : 

"  Have  you  run  away  from  your  master  ?" 

" Golly,  no!"  was  the  prompt  answer,  "mass'r  run 
away  from  me/99 

The  slaves,  who  always  heard  the  term  ' c  runaway' ' 
applied  only  to  their  own  race,  were  not  aware  that  it 
could  have  any  other  significance.  After  the  war  opened, 
its  larger  meaning  suddenly  dawned  upon  them.  The 
idea  of  the  master  running  away  and  the  negroes  stay 
ing,  was  always  to  them  ludicrous  beyond  description. 
The  extravagant  lines  of  "  Kingdom  Coming,"  exactly 
depicted  their  feelings : 

Say,  darkies,  hab  you  seen  de  mass'r, 

Wid  de  muifstach  on  his  face, 
Go  'long  de  road  some  time  dis  raornin', 

Like  he's  gwine  to  leave  de  place  ? 
He  seen  de  smoke  way  up  de  ribber 

Where  de  Linkum  gunboats  lay; 
He  took  his  hat  and  left  berry  sudden, 
And  I  'spose  he  runned  away. 
De  mass'r  run,  ha!    ha! 

De  darkey  stay,  ho!    ho! 
It  must  be  now  de  kingdom  comin', 
An'  de  year  ob  Jubilo. 

"Dey  tole  us,"  said  a  group  of  blacks,  "dat  if  your 
army  cotched  us,  you  would  cut  off  our  right  feet.  But, 
Lor !  we  knowed  you  wouldn't  hurt  us  /" 

At  a  house  where  we  dined,  the  planter  assuming 
to  be  loyal,  one  of  our  officers  grew  confidential  with, 
him,  when  a  negro  woman  managed  to  beckon  me  into 
a  back  room,  and  seizing  my  arm,  very  earnestly  said : 
"I  tell  you,  massVs  only  just  putting  on.  He  hates 
you  all,  and  wants  to  see  you  killed.  Soon  as  you 


i86i.]  How  THE  SOLDIERS  FORAGED.  177 

have  passed,  he  will  send  right  to  Wise's  army,  and 
tell  him  what  you  mean  to  do;  if  any  of  you'uns  re 
main  here  behind  the  troops,  you  will  be  in  danger. 
He's  in  a  heap  of  trouble,"  she  added,  ."but,  Lord, 
dese  times  just  suits  me!" 

At  another  house,  while  the  Rebel  host  had  stepped 
out  for  a  moment,  an  intelligent  young  colored  woman, 
with  an  infant  in  her  arms,  stationed  two  negro  girls  at 
the  door  to  watch  for  his  return,  and  interrogated  me 
about  the  progress  and  purposes  of  the  War.  "Is  it 
true,"  she  inquired,  very  sadly,  "  that  your  army  has 
been  hunting  and  returning  runaway  slaves  ?" 

Thanks  to  General  Cox,  who,  like  the  sentinel  in 
Holla,  "knew  his  duty  better,"  I  could  reply  in  the 
negative.  But  when,  with  earnestness  gleaming  in  her 
eyes,  she  asked,  if,  through  these  convulsions,  any  hope 
glimmered  for  her  race,  what  could  I  tell  her  but  to  be 
patient,  and  trust  in  God  \ 

Army  rations  are  not  inviting  to  epicurean  tastes ; 
but  in  the  field  all  sorts  of  vegetables  and  poultry  were 
added  to  our  bill  of  fare.  Chickens,  young  pigs,  fence- 
rails,  apples,  and  potatoes,  are  legitimate  army  spoils  the 
world  over. 

"Where  did  you  get  that  turkey?"  asked  a  captain 
of  one  of  his  men.  "Bought  it,  sir,"  was  the  prompt 
answer.  "For  how  much?"  "Seventy-five  cents." 
"Paid  for  it,  did  you?"  "Well,  no,  sir;  told  the  man 
I  would  pay  when  ice  came  back!" 

"Mass'r,"  said  a  little  ebony  servant  to  a  captain 
with  whom  I  was  messing,  "I  sees  a  mighty  fine  goose. 
Wish  we  had  him  for  supper." 

"Ginger,"  replied  the  officer,  "have  I  not  often  told 
you  that  it  is  very  wicked  to  steal  ?" 

The  little  negro  laughed  all  over  his  face,  and  fell  out 

12 


178  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  KANAWHA.  [isei. 

of  tlie  ranks.  By  a  u  coincidence,"  worthy  of  Sam 
Weller,  we  supped  on  stewed  goose  that  very  evening. 

Seen  by  night  from  the  adjacent  hills,  our  pictu 
resque  encampments  gave  to  the  wild  landscape  a  new 
"beauty.  In  the  deep  valleys  gleamed  hundreds  of 
snowy  tents,  lighted  by  waning  camp-fires,  round  which 
grotesque  figures  flitted.  The  faint  murmur  of  voices, 
and  the  ghostly  sweetness  of  distant  music,  filled  the 
summer  air. 

At  the  Falls  rf  the  Kanawha  the  river  is  half  a  mile 
wide.  A  natural  dam  of  rocks,  a  hundred  yards  in 
breadth,  and,  on  its  lower  side,  thirty  feet  above  the 
water,  extends  obliquely  across  the  stream — a  smooth 
surface  of  gray  rock,  spotted  with  brown  moss. 

Near  the  south  bank  is  the  main  fall,  in  the  form  of 
a  half  circle,  three  or  four  hundred  yards  long,  with  a 
broken  descent  of  thirty  feet.  Above  the  brink,  the 
water  is  dark,  green,  and  glassy,  but  at  the  verge  it 
looks  half  transparent,  as  it  tumbles  and  foams  down 
the  rocks,  lashed  into  a  passion  of  snowy  whiteness. 
Plunging  into  the  seething  caldron,  it  throws  up  great 
jets  and  sheets  of  foam.  Above,  the  calm,  shining 
water  extends  for  a  mile,  until  hidden  by  a  sudden  bend 
in  the  channel.  The  view  is  bounded  by  a  tall  spur, 
wrapped  in  the  sober  green  of  the  forest,  with  an  ad 
venturous  corn-field  climbing  far  up  its  steep  side.  At 
the  narrow  base  of  the  spur,  a  straw-colored  lawn  sur 
rounds  a  white  farm-house,  with  low,  sloping  roof  and 
antique  chimneys.  It  is  half  hidden  among  the  maples, 
and  sentineled  by  a  tall  Lombardy  poplar. 

Two  miles  above  the  fall,  the  stream  breaks  into  its 
two  chief  confluents — the  New  River  and  the  Gauley. 
Hawk's  Nest,  near  their  junction,  is  a  peculiarly  roman 
tic  spot.  In  its  vicinity  our  command  halted.  It  was 


186L]  A  TRAGEDY  OF  SLAVERY.  179 

far  from  its  base,  and  Wise  ran  too  fast  for  capture.  We 
liad  five  thousand  troops,  who  were  ill-disciplined  and 
discontented.  General  Cox  was  then  fresh  from  the  Ohio 
Senate.  After  more  field  experience,  he  became  an  ex 
cellent  officer. 

When  I  returned  through  the  valley,  I  found  Charles 
ton  greatly  excited.  A  docile  and  intelligent  mulatto 
slave,  of  thirty  years,  had  never  been  struck  in  his 
life.  But,  on  the  way  to  a  hayfield,  his  new  overseer 
began  to  crack  his  whip  over  the  shoulders  of  the  gang, 
to  hurry  them  forward.  The  mulatto  shook  his  head  a 
little  defiantly,  when  the  whip  was  laid  heavily  across 
his  back.  Turning  instantly  upon  the  driver,  he  smote 
him  with  his  hayfork,  knocking  him  from  his  horse,  and 
laying  the  skull  bare.  The  overseer,  a  large,  athletic 
man,  drew  his  revolver ;  but,  before  he  could  use  it,  the 
agile  mulatto  wrenched  it  away,  and  fired  two  shots  at 
his  head,  which  instantly  killed  him.  Taking  the 
weapon,  the  slave  fled  to  the  mountains,  whence  he 
escaped  to  the  Ohio  line. 

ST.  Louis,  Augmt  19,  1861. 

In  the  days  of  stage-coaches,  the  trip  from  Cincin 
nati  to  St.  Louis  was  a  very  melancholy  experience  ;  in 
the  days  of  steamboats,  a  very  tedious  one.  Now,  you 
leave  Cincinnati  on  a  summer  evening ;  and  the  placid 
valley  of  the  Ohio — the  almost  countless  cornfields  of 
the  Great  Miami  (one  of  them  containing  fifteen  hundred 
acres),  where  the  exhaustless  soil  has  produced  that  staple 
abundantly  for  fifty  years — the  grave  and  old  home  of 
General  Harrison,  at  North  Bend — the  dense  forests  of 
Indiana — the  Wabash  Valley,  that  elysium  of  chills  and 
fever,  where  pumpkins  are  "  fruit,"  and  hoop-poles 
"  timber  "—the  dead-level  prairies  of  Illinois,  with  their 


180  THE  FUTURE  OP  ST.  Louis. 

oceans  of  corn,  tufts  of  wood,  and  painfully  white  vil 
lages — the  muddy  Mississippi,  "All-the- Waters,"  as  one 
Indian  tribe  used  to  call  it — are  unrolled  in  panorama, 
till,  at  early  morning,  St.  Louis,  h'ot  and  parched  with 
the  journey,  holds  out  her  dusty  hands  to  greet  you. 

]S~o  inland  city  ever  held  such  a  position  as  this.  Here 
is  the  heart  of  the  unequaled  valley,  which  extends 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Alleghanies,  and  from 
the  great  lakes  to  the  Gulf.  Here  is  the  mighty  river, 
which  drains  a  region  six  times  greater  than  the  empire 
of  France,  and  bears  on  its  bosom  the  waters  of  fifty- 
seven  navigable  streams.  Even  the  rude  savage  called  it 
the  "Father  of  Waters,"  and  early  Spanish  explorers 
reverentially  named  it  the  "  River  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

St.  Louis,  "  with  its  thriving  young  heart,  and  its  old 
French  limbs,"  is  to  be  the  New  York  of  the  interior. 
The  child  is  living  who  will  see  it  the  second  city  on  the 
American  continent. 

Three  Rebel  newspapers  have  recently  been  sup 
pressed.  The  editor  of  one  applied  to  the  provost-mar 
shal  for  permission  to  resume,  but  declined  to  give  a 
pledge  that  no  disloyal  sentiment  should  appear  in  its 
columns.  He  was  very  tender  of  the  Constitution,  and 
solicitous  about  "the  rights  of  the  citizen."  .  The  mar 
shal  replied  : 

"  I  cannot  discuss  these  matters  with  you.  I  am  a 
soldier,  and  obey  orders." 

"But,"  remonstrated  the  editor,  "you  might  be 
ordered  to  hang  me." 

"  Yery  possibly,"  replied  the  major,  dryly. 

"  And  you  would  obey  orders,  then  ?" 

"  Most  assuredly  I  would,  sir." 

The  Secession  journalist  left,  in  profound  disgust. 


1861.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  WILSON  CKEEK.  181 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

He  died, 

To  throw  away  the  dearest  thing  he  owed, 
As  'twere  a  careless  trifle. 

MACBETH. 

The  devil  can  cite  Scripture  for  his  purpose. 

MERCHANT  OF  VENICE. 

the.  10th  of  August,  at  Wilson  Creek,  two  hun 
dred  and  forty  miles  southwest  of  St.  Louis,  occurred 
the  hardest-fought  battle  of  the  year.  General  Lyon  had 
pursued  the  Rebels  to  that  corner  of  the  State.  He  had 
called  again  and  again  for  re-enforcements,  but  at  Wrash- 
ington  nothing  could  be  seen  except  Virginia.  Lyon' s 
force  was  live  thousand  two  hundred  men.  The  enemy, 
under  Ben  McCulloch  and  Sterling  Price,  numbered  over 
eleven  thousand,  according  to  McCulloch' s  official  report. 
Lyon  would  not  retreat.  He  thought  that  would  injure 
the  Cause  more  than  to  fight  and  be  defeated. 

To  one  of  his  staff-officers,  the  night  before  the  en 
gagement,  he  said :  "I  believe  in  presentiments,  and, 
ever  since  this  attack  was  planned,  I  have  felt  that  it 
would  result  disastrously.  But  I  cannot  leave  the 
country  without  a  battle." 

On  his  way  to  the  field,  he  was  silent  and  abstracted  ; 
but  when  the  guns  opened,  he  gave  his  orders  with  great 
promptness  and  clearness. 

He  had  probably  resolved  that  he  would  not  leave  the 
field  alive  unless  he  left  it  as  a  victor.  By  a  singular  co 
incidence,  the  two  armies  marched  out  before  daybreak 
on  that  morning  each  to  attack  the  other.  They  met,  and 
for  many  hours  the  tide  of  battle  ebbed  and  flowed. 

Lyon's  little  army  fought  with  conspicuous  gallantry. 


182        DARING  EXPLOIT  OF  A  KANSAS  OFFICER. 

It  contained  the  very  Ibest  material.  The  following  is 
a  list — from  memory,  and  therefore  quite  incomplete — 
of  some  officers,  who,  winning  here  their  first  renown, 
afterward  achieved  wide  and  honorable  reputation  : 

AT  WILSON  CREEK.  AFTERWARD. 

Frederick  Steele Captain Major-General. 

F.  J.  Herron Captain Major-General. 

P.  J.  OsterLaus Major Major-General. 

S.  D.  Sturgis Major Major-General. 

R.  B.  Mitchell Colonel Major-General. 

Franz  Sigel Colonel Major-General. 

D.  S.  Stanley Captain Major-General. 

J.  M.  Schofield Major Major-General. 

Gordon  Granger Captain Major-General. 

J.  B.  Plummer Captain Brigadier-General. 

James  Totten Captain Brigadier-General. 

E.  A.  Carr Captain Brigadier-General. 

Geo.  W.  Deitzler Colonel Brigadier-General. 

T.  W.  Sweeney Captain Brigadier-General. 

Geo.  L.  Andrews Lieutenant-Colonel..  .Brigadier-General. 

I.  F.  Shepard Major Brigadier-General. 

During  the  battle,  Captain  Powell  Clayton' s  company 
of  the  First  Kansas  Volunteers,  becoming  separated  from 
the  rest  of  our  forces,  was  approached  by  a  regiment  uni 
formed  precisely  like  the  First  Iowa.  Clayton  had  just 
aligned  his  men  with  this  new  regiment,  when  he  de 
tected  small  strips  of  red  cloth  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
privates,  which  marked  them  as  Rebels.  With  perfect 
coolness,  he  gave  the  order : 

' '  Right  oblique,  march  !  You  are  crowding  too  much 
upon  this  regiment." 

By  this  maneuver  his  company  soon  placed  a  good 
fifty  yards  between  itself  and  the  Rebel  regiment,  when 
the  Adjutant  of  the  latter  rode  up  in  front,  suspicious 
that  all  was  not  right.  Turning  to  Clayton,  he  asked  : 

"  What  troops  are  these  ?" 


1861.]  THE  DEATH  OF  LYON.  183 

"  First  Kansas,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  "  What  regi 
ment  is  that  ?" 

"Fifth  Missouri,  Col.  Clarkson." 

"  Southern  or  Union  ?" 

' i  Southern, ' '  said  the  Rebel,  wheeling  his  horse  ;  but 
Clayton  seized  him  by  the  collar,  and  threatened  to  shoot 
him  if  he  commanded  his  men  to  attack.  The  Adjutant, 
heedless  of  his  own  danger,  ordered  his  regiment  to  open 
fire  upon  the  Kansas  company.  He  was  shot  dead  on 
the  spot  by  Clayton,  who  told  his  men  to  run  for  their 
lives.  They  escaped  with  the  loss  of  only  four. 

Toward  evening  Lyon'  s  horse  was  killed  under  him. 
Immediately  afterward,  his  officers  begged  that  he  would 
retire  to  a  less  exposed  spot.  Scarcely  raising  his  eyes 
from  the  enemy,  he  said  : 

"  It  is  well  enough  that  I  stand  here.     I  am  satisfied." 

While  the  line  was  forming,  he  turned  to  Major 
Sturgis,  who  stood  near  him,  and  remarked  : 

"  I  fear  that  the  day  is  lost.  I  think  I  will  lead  this 
charge." 

Early  in  the  day  he  had  received  a  flesh-wound  in 
the  leg,  from  which  the  blood  flowed  profusely.  Stur 
gis  now  noticed  fresh  blood  on  the  General's  hat,  and 
asked  where  it  came  from. 

"It  is  nothing,  Major,  nothing  but  a  wound  in  the 
head,"  replied  Lyon,  mounting  a  fresh  horse. 

Without  taking  the  hat  that  was  held  out  to  him  by 
Major  Sturgis,  he  shouted  to  the  soldiers  : 

"  Forward,  men  !     I  will  lead  you." 

Two  minutes  later  he  lay  dead  on  the  field,  pierced  by 
a  rifle-ball  through  the  breast,  just  above  the  heart. 

Our  officers  held  a  hurried  consultation,  and  decided 
not  only  to  retreat,  but  to  abandon  southwest  Missouri. 
Strangely  enough,  the  coincidence  of  the  morning  was 


184  LYON'S  COURAGE  AND  PATRIOTISM.  [isei. 

here  repeated.  Almost  simultaneously,  tlie  Rebels  de 
cided  to  fall  back.  They  were  in  full  retreat  when  they 
were  arrested  by  the  news  of  the  departure  of  the  Fede 
ral  troops,  and  returned  to  take  possession  of  the  field 
which  the  last  Union  soldier  had  abandoned  eight  hours 
before. 

They  claimed  a  great  victory,  and  with  justice,  as 
they  finally  held  the  ground.  Their  journals  were  very 
jubilant.  Said  The  New  Orleans  Picayune  : 

"  Lyon  is  killed,  Sigel  in  flight ;  southwestern  Missouri  is  clear  of 
the  National  scum  of  invaders.  The  next  word  will  be,  '  On  to  St. 
Louis.'  That  taken,  the  whole  power  of  Lincolnism  is  broken  in  the 
"West,  and  instead  of  shouting  l  Ho  for  Richmond !'  and  '  Ho  for  New  Or 
leans!'  there  will  be  hurrying  to  and  fro  among  the  frightened  magnates 
at  Washington,  and  anxious  inquiries  of  what  they  shall  do  to  save  them 
selves  from  the  vengeance  to  come.  Heaven  smiles  on  the  armies  of  the 
Confederate  States." 

Lyon  went  into  the  battle  in  civilian' s  dress,  except 
ing  only  a  military  coat.  He  had  on  a  soft  hat  of  ashen 
hue,  with  long  fur  and  very  broad  brim,  turned  up  on 
three  sides.  He  had  worn  it  for  a  month  ;  it  would  have 
individualized  the  wearer  among  fifty  thousand  men. 
His  peculiar  dress  and  personal  appearance  were  well 
known  through  the  enemy' s  camp.  He  received  a  new 
and  elegant  uniform  just  before  the  battle,  but  it  was 
never  worn  until  his  remains  were  clothed  in  it,  after  the 
brave  spirit  had  fled,  and  while  our  forces  were  retreat 
ing  from  Springfield  by  night. 

Notwithstanding  his  personal  bravery  and  military 
education,  he  always  opposed  dueling  on  principle.  No 
provocation  made  him  recognize  the  "code."  Once  he 
was  struck  in  the  face,  but  he  had  courage  enough  to  re 
fuse  to  challenge  his  adversary.  For  a  time  this  subjec 
ted  him  to  misapprehension  and  contempt  among  military 


1861]  ARRIVAL  OF  GENERAL  FREMONT.  185 

men,  but,  long  before  liis  death,  his  fellow-officers  under 
stood  and  respected  him. 

He  seemed  to  care  little  for  personal  fame — to  think 
only  of  the  Cause.  Knowing  exactly  what  was  before 
him,  he  went  to  death  on  that  summer  evening  "as  a 
man  goes  to  his  bridal."  Losing  a  life,  he  gained  an  im 
mortality.  His  memory  is  green  in  the  nation's  heart, 
his  name  high  on  her  roll  of  honor. 

On  the  25th  of  July,  Major-General  John  C.  Fremont 
reached  St.  Louis,  in  command  of  the  Western  Depart 
ment.  His  advent  was  hailed  with  great  enthusiasm. 
The  newspapers,  West,  predicted  for  him  achievements 
extravagant  and  impossible  as  those  which  the  New 
York  journals  had  foretold  for  McClellan.  In  those  san 
guine  days,  the  whole  country  made  "  Young  Napo 
leons"  to  order. 

With  characteristic  energy,  Fremont  plunged  into  the 
business  of  his  new  department,  where  chaos  reigned, 
and  he  had  no  spell  to  evoke  order,  save  the  boundless 
patriotism  and  earnestness  of  the  people. 

His  head-quarters  were  established  on  Chouteau  Ave 
nue.  He  was  overrun  with  visitors — every  captain,  or 
corporal,  or  civilian,  seeking  to  prosecute  his  business 
with  the  General  in  person.  He  was  therefore  com 
pelled  to  shut  himself  up,  and,  by  the  sweeping  refusal 
to  admit  petitioners  to  him,  a  few  were  excluded  whose 
business  was  important.  Some  dissatisfaction  and  some 
jesting  resulted.  I  remember  three  Kansas  officers, 
charged  with  affairs  of  moment,  who  used  daily  to  be 
merry,  describing  how  they  had  made  a  reconnoissance 
toward  Fremont' s  head-quarters,  fought  a  lively  engage 
ment,  and  driven  in  the  pickets,  only  to  find  the  main 
garrison  so  well  guarded  that  they  were  quite  unable  to 
force  it. 


186  UNION  FAMILIES  DRIVEN  OUT.  [isei. 

ST.  Louis,  August  26,  1861. 

A  long  caravan  of  old-fashioned  Virginia  wagons, 
containing  rude  chairs,  "bedsteads,  and  kitchen  utensils, 
passed  through  town  yesterday.  They  brought  from 
the  Southwest  families  who, 

"Forced  from  their  homes,  a  melancholy  train," 

are  seeking  in  free  Illinois  that  protection  which 
Government  is  unable  to  aiford  them  in  Missouri.  At 
least  fifty  thousand  inoffensive  persons  have  thus  fled 
since  the  Rebellion. 

August  29. 

We  were  lately  surprised  and  gratified  to  learn  that  a 
gentleman  from  Minnesota  had  offered  an  unasked  loan 
of  forty-six  thousand  dollars  to  the  Government  au 
thorities — gratified  at  such  spontaneous  patriotism,  and 
surprised  that  any  man  who  lived  in  Minnesota  should 
have  forty-six  thousand  dollars.  The  latter  mystery  has 
been  explained  by  the  discovery  that  he  never  took  his 
funds  to  that  vortex  of  real  estate  speculation,  but  left 
them  in  this  city,  where  he  formerly  resided.  Moreover, 
his  money  was  in  Missouri  currency,  which,  though  at 
par  here  in  business  transactions,  is  at  a  discount  of 
eight  per  cent,  on  gold  and  New  York  exchange.  The 
loan  is  to  be  returned  to  him  in  gold.  So,  after  all, 
there  is  probably  as  much  human  nature  to  the  square 
acre  in  Minnesota  as  anywhere  else. 

September  6. 

" Egypt  to  the  rescue!"  is  the  motto  upon  the  ban 
ner  of  a  new  Illinois  regiment.  Southern  Illinois,  known 
as  Egypt,  is  turning  out  men  for  the  Mississippi  cam 
paign  with  surprising  liberality ;  whereupon  a  fiery  Se 
cessionist  triumphantly  calls  attention  to  this  prophetic 


]86i.]       AN  INVOLUNTARY  SOJOURN  WITH  REBELS.       187 

text,  from  Hosea :   "  Egypt  shall  gather  them  up  ;  Mem 
phis  shall  bury  them !" 

The  aptness  of  the  citation  is  admirable ;  but  he  is 
reminded,  in  return,  that  the  pet  phrase  of  the  Rebels, 
"Let  us  alone,"  was  the  prayer  of  a  man  possessed  of 
a  devil,  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ! 

I  have  just  met  a  gentleman,  residing  in  southwestern 
Missouri,  whose  experience  is  novel.  He  visited  the 
camp  of  the  Rebels  to  reclaim  a  pair  of  valuable  horses, 
which  they  had  taken  from  his  residence.  They  not  only 
retained  the  stolen  animals,  but  also  took  from  him  those 
with  which  he  went  in  pursuit,  and  left  him  the  alterna 
tive  of  walking  home,  twenty-three  miles,  through  a 
dangerous  region,  or  remaining  in  their  camp.  Fond  of 
adventure,  he  chose  the  latter,  and  for  three  weeks 
messed  with  a  Missouri  company.  The  facetious  scoun 
drels  told  him  that  they  could  not  afford  to  keep  him 
unless  he  earned  his  living  ;  and  employed  him  as  a  team 
ster.  He  had  philosophy  enough  to  make  the  best  of  it, 
and  flattered  himself  that  he  became  a  very  creditable 
mule-driver. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  August  10th,  he  was  break 
fasting  with  the  officers  from  a  dry-goods  box,  which 
served  for  a  table,  when  bang !  went  a  cannon,  not  more 
than  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  them,  and  crash ! 
came  a  ball,  cutting  off  the  branches  just  above  their 
heads.  i  i  Here  is  the  devil  to  pay  ;  the  Dutch  are  upon 
us!"  exclaimed  the  captain,  springing  up  and  ordering 
his  company  to  form. 

My  friend  was  a  looker-on  from  the  Southern  side  du 
ring  the  whole  battle.  He  gives  a  graphic  account  of  the 
joy  of  the  Rebels  at  finding  the  body  of  General  Lyon, 
lying  under  a  tree  (the  first  information  they  had  of  his 
death),  and  their  surprise  and  consternation  at  the  bravery 
with  which  the  little  Union  army  fought  to  the  bitter  end. 


188         A  STARTLING  CONFEDERATE  ATROCITY.         [isci. 

Twenty  leading  Secessionists  are  in  durance  vile 
here.  There  is  a  poetic  justice  in  the  fact  that  their 
prison  was  formerly  a  slave-pen,  and  that  they  are  en 
abled  to  study  State  Rights  from  old  negro  quarters. 

j  September  7. 

The  Rebels  have  just  perpetrated  a  new  and  startling 
atrocity.  They  cut  down  the  high  railroad  bridge  over 
the  Little  Platte  River  near  St.  Joseph.  The  next  train 
from  Hannibal  reached  the  spot  at  midnight,  and  its  loco 
motive  and  five  cars  were  precipitated,  thirty  feet,  into 
the  bed  of  the  river.  More  than  fifty  passengers  were 
dangerously  wounded,  and  twenty  instantly  killed. 
They  were  mainly  women  and  children ;  there  was  not 
a  single  soldier  among  them. 

September  15. 

General  Fremont  is  issuing  written  guarantees  for 
their  freedom  to  the  slaves  of  Rebels.  They  are  in 
the  form  of  real-estate  conveyances,  releasing  the  recipient 
from  all  obligations  to  his  master  ;  declaring  him  forever 
free  from  servitude,  and  with  full  right  and  authority  to 
control  his  own  labor.  They  are  headed  ' '  Deed  of  Manu 
mission,"  authenticated  by  the  great  seal  of  the  Western 
Department,  and  the  signature  of  its  commander.  Think 
of  giving  a  man  a  warranty-deed  for  his  own  body  and 
soul ! 

In  compliance  with  imperative  orders  from  the  Gov 
ernment,  several  regiments,  though  sadly  needed  here,  are 
being  sent  eastward.  To  the  colonel  commanding  one  of 
them,  the  order  was  conveyed  by  Fremont  in  these 
characteristic  terms  : 

"  Repair  at  once  to  Washington.  Transportation  is  provided  for  yon. 
My  friend,  I  am  sorry  to  part  with  you,  but  thele  are  laurels  growing  on 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac." 


1861.]     ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  "  BOHEMIAN  BRIGADE."     189 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Why  should  a  man,  whose  blood  is  warm  within, 

Sit  like  his  grandsire  cut  in  alabaster? — MERCHANT  OF  VENICE. 

IN  October,  General  Fremont' s  forming  army  rendez 
voused  at  the  capital  of  Missouri.  From  afar,  Jefferson 
City  is  picturesque;  "but  distance  lends  enchantment. 
Close  inspection  shows  it  uninviting  and  rough.  The 
Capitol,  upon  a  frowning  hill,  is  a  little  suggestive  of 
the  sober  old  State  House  which  overlooks  Boston  Com 
mon.  Brick  and  frame  houses  enough  for  a  population 
of  three  thousand  straggle  over  an  area  of  a  mile  square, 
as  if  they  had  been  tossed  up  like  a  peck  of  apples,  and 
left  to  come  down  and  locate  themselves.  Many  are  half 
hidden  by  the  locust,  ailantus,  and  arbor- vitse  trees,  and 
the  white  blossoms  of  the  catalpas. 

The  war  correspondents  ' '  smelled  the  battle  from  afar 
off."  More  than  twenty  collected  two  or  three  weeks  be 
fore  the  army  started.  Some  of  them  were  very  grave 
and  decorous  at  home,  but  here  they  were  like  boys  let 
out  of  school. 

They  styled  themselves  the  Bohemian  Brigade,  and 
exhibited  that  touch  of  the  vagabond  which  Irving  cha 
ritably  attributes  to  all  poetic  temperaments.  They  were 
quartered  in  a  wretched  little  tavern  eminently  First 
Class  in  its  prices.  It  was  very  southern  in  style.  A 
broad  balcony  in  front,  over  a  cool  brick  pavement ; 
no  two  rooms  upon  the  same  level ;  no  way  of  get 
ting  up  stairs  except  by  going  out  of  doors  ;  long, 
low  wings,  shooting  off  in  all  directions ;  a  gallery 
in  the  rear,  deeper  than  the  house  itself;  heavy  fur- 


190  AN  AMUSED  AFRICAN.  [ISGI 

niture,  from  the  last  generation,  with  a  single  modern 
link  in  the  shape  of  a  piano  in  the  ladies'  parlor  ;  leis 
urely  negro  waiters,  including  little  boys  and  girls,  stand 
ing  behind  guests  at  dinner,  and  waving  long  wands  over 
the  table  to  disconcert  the  omnipresent  flies ;  and  corn 
bread,  hot  biscuits,  ham,  and  excellent  coffee.  The  host 
and  hostess  were  slaveholders,  who  said  "thar"  and 
"whar,"  but  held  that  Secessionists  were  traitors,  and 
that  traitors  ought  to  be  hung. 

The  landlord,  who  was  aged,  rheumatic,  and  half  blind, 
labored  under  the  delusion  that  he  kept  the  house  ;  but 
an  intelligent  and  middle-aged  slave,  yclept  John,  was 
the  real  brain  of  the  establishment. 

"John,"  asked  one  of  the  correspondents,  "  does 
your  master  really  think  he  is  alive  ?" 

"  'Live,  sir  ?  I  reckon  so." 

"Why,  he  has  been  dead  these  twenty  years.  He 
hobbles  around,  pretending  he  exists,  just  to  save  fune 
ral  expenses." 

John's  extravagant  enjoyment  of  this  sorry  jest  beg 
gared  description.  He  threw  himself  on  the  floor,  rolled 
over  and  over,  and  roared  with  laughter  for  fifteen  min 
utes.  He  did  not  recover  his  usual  gravity  for  weeks. 
Again  and  again,  while  waiting  upon  guests,  he  would 
see  his  master  coming,  and  suddenly  explode  with  mer 
riment,  to  the  infinite  amazement  of  the  liabitues  of  the 
house,  who  suspected  that  the  negro  was  losing  his 
wits. 

The  Bohemians  took  their  ease  in  their  inn,  and  held 
high  carnival,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  its  attaches,  from 
the  aged  proprietor  down  to  the  half-fledged  negro  cher 
ubs.  Each  seemed  to  regard  as  his  personal  property  the 
half-dozen  rooms  which  all  occupied.  The  one  who 
dressed  earliest  in  the  morning  would  appropriate  the 


1861.]          DIVERSIONS  OF  THE  CORRESPONDENTS.  191 

first  hat,  coat,  and  boots  lie  found,   remarking  that  the 
owner  was  probably  dead. 

One  huge,  good-natured  brother  they  called  "the 
Elephant."  He  was  greatly  addicted  to  sleeping  in 
the  daytime  ;  and  when  other  resources  failed,  some 
reckless  quill-driver  would  say  : 

"  Now,  let's  all  go  and  sleep  with  the  Elephant." 

Eight  or  ten  would  pile  themselves  upon  his  bed,  be 
side  him  and  upon  him,  until  his  good-nature  became 
exhausted,  when  the  giant  would  toss  them  out  of 
the  room  like  so  many  pebbles,  and  lock  his  door. 

There  was  little  work  to  be  done ;  so  they  discussed 
politics,  art,  society,  and  metaphysics ;  and  would  soon 
kindle  into  singing,  reciting,  i  i  sky-larking, ' '  wrestling, 
flinging  saddles,  valises,  and  pillows.  In  some  recent 
theatrical  spectacle,  two  had  heard  a  "chorus  of 
fiends,"  which  tickled  their  fancy.  As  the  small  hours 
approached,  it  was  their  unceasing  delight  to  roar  imi 
tations  of  it,  declaring,  with  each  repetition,  that  it  was 
now  to  be  given  positively  for  the  last  time,  and  by  the 
very  special  request  of  the  audience.  How  they  sent 
that  demoniac  "Ha!  ha!  ha!"  shrieking  through  the 
midnight  air !  The  following  account  of  their  diver 
sions  was  given  by  "  J.  G."  in  The  Cincinnati  Gazette. 
The  scenes  he  witnessed  suggested,  very  naturally,  the 
nomenclature  of  the  prize-ring : 

Happening  to  drop  in  the  other  night,  I  found  the  representatives 
of  The  Missouri  Republican,  The  Cincinnati  Commercial,  The  New 
York  World,  and  The  Tribune,  engaged  in  a  hot  discussion  upon  matri 
mony,  which  finally  ran  into  metaphysics.  The  Republican  having 
plumply  disputed  an  abstruse  proposition  of  The  Tribune,  the  latter 
seized  an  immense  bolster,  and  brought  it  down  with  emphasis  upon  the 
glossy  pate  of  his  antagonist.  This  instantly  broke  up  the  debate,  and 
a  general  melee  commenced.  The  Republican  grabbed  a  damp  towel  and 


192  A  POLITE  ARMY  CHAPLAIN.  [ISGI. 

aimed  a  stunning  blow  at  his  assailant,  which  missed  him  and  brought 
up  against  the  nasal  protuberance  of  Frank  Leslie.  The  exasperated 
Frank  dealt  back  a  pillow,  followed  by  a  well-packed  knapsack.  Then 
The  Missouri  Democrat  sent  a  coverlet,  which  lit  upon  and  enveloped 
the  knowledge-box  of  The  Herald.  The  latter  disengaged  himself  after 
several  frantic  efforts,  and  hurled  a  ponderous  pair  of  saddle-bags,  which 
passed  so  close  to  The  Gazetted  head,  that  in  dodging  it  he  bumped  his 
phrenology  against  the  bed-post,  and  raised  a  respectable  organ  where 
none  existed  before.  Simultaneously  The  Commercial  threw  a  haver 
sack,  which  hit  Harper  in  the  bread-basket,  and  doubled  him  into  a 
folio — knocking  him  against  The  World,  who,  toppling  from  his  center 
of  gravity,  was  poising  a  plethoric  bed-tick  with  dire  intent,  when  the 
upturned  legs  of  a  chair  caught  and  tore  it  open,  scattering  the  feathers 
through  the  surging  atmosphere.  In  falling,  he  capsized  the  table,  spill 
ing  the  ink,  wrecking  several  literary  barks,  extinguishing  the  "brief 
candle"  that  had  faintly  revealed  the  sanguinary  fray,  thus  abruptly  ter 
minating  hostilities,  but  leaving  the  panting  heroes  still  defiant  and 
undismayed.  A  light  was  at  last  struck ;  the  combatants  adjusted  their 
toilets,  and,  having  lit  the  calumets  of  peace,  gently  resigned  themselves 
to  the  soothing  influence  of  the  weed. 

They  did  not  learn,  for  several  days,  that  a  meek 
chaplain,  with  his  wife  and  three  children,  inhabited  an 
adjacent  apartment.  He  was  at  once  sent  for,  and  a  fit 
ting  apology  tendered.  He  replied  that  he  had  actually 
enjoyed  the  novel  entertainment.  He  must  have  Ibeen 
the  most  polite  man  in  the  whole  world.  He  is  worthy 
a  niche  in  biography,  beside  the  lady  who  was  showered 
with  gravy,  by  Sidney  Smith,  and  who,  while  it  was 
still  dripping  from  her  chin,  blandly  replied  to  his 
apologies,  that  not  a  single  drop  had  touched  her ! 

When  iii-door  diversions  failed,  the  correspondents 
amused  themselves  by  racing  their  horses,  which  were 
all  fresh  and  excitable.  That  region,  abounding  in  hills, 
ravines,  and  woods,  is  peculiarly  seductive  to  reckless 
equestrians  desiring  dislocated  limbs  or  broken  necks. 

One  evening,  the   "Elephant"  was  thrown  heavily 


i86i.]  SIGHTS  IN  JEFFERSON  CITY.  193 

from  his  horse,  and  severely  lamed.  The  next  night, 
nothing  daunted,  he  repeated  the  race,  and  was  hurled 
upon  the  ground  with  a  force  which  destroyed  his  con 
sciousness  for  three  or  four  hours.  A  comrade,  in  at 
tempting  to  stop  the  riderless  horse,  was  dragged  under 
the  heels  of  his  own  animal.  His  mild,  protesting  look, 
as  he  lay  flat  upon  his  back,  holding  in  both  hands  the 
uplifted,  threatening  foot  of  his  fiery  Pegasus,  was  quite 
beyond  description.  One  correspondent  dislocated  his 
shoulder,  and  went  home  from  the  field  before  he  heard 
a  gun. 

JEFFERSON  CITY,  Mo.,    October  6,  1861. 

These  deep  rayines  and  this  fathomless  mud  offer  to 
obstinate  mules  unlimited  facilities  for  shying,  and  in 
finite  possibilities  of  miring.  Last  night,  six  animals 
and  an  army  wagon  went  over  a  small  precipice,  and, 
after  a  series  of  somersaults,  driver,  wagon,  and  mules, 
reached  the  bottom,  in  a  very  chaotic  condition. 

Jefferson  is  strong  on  the  wet  weather  question. 
When  Lyon  got  here  in  June,  he  was  welcomed  by  one 
man  with  an  umbrella.  When  Fremont  arrived,  a  few 
nights  ago,  he  was  taken  in  charge  by  the  same  gentle 
man,  who  was  floundering  about  through  the  mud  with 
a  lantern,  seeking,  not  an  honest  man,  but  quarters  for 
the  commanding  general. 

Most  of  the  troops  have  gone  forward,  but  some  re 
main.  Newly  mounted  officers,  who  sit  upon  their  steeds 
much  as  an  elephant  might  walk  a  tight  rope,  dash  madly 
through  the  streets,  fondly  dreaming  that  they  witch  the 
world  with  noble  horsemanship.  Subalterns  show  a 
weakness  for  brass  buttons,  epaulettes,  and  gold  braid, 
which  leaves  feminine  vanity  quite  in  the  shade. 

In  the  camps,  the  long  roll  is  sometimes  sounded  at 
midnight,  to  accustom  officers  and  men  to  spring  to  arms. 

13 


194  "  FIGHTS  MIT  SIGEL."  [i86i. 

Upon  the  first  of  these  sudden  calls  from  Morpheus  to 
Mars,  the  negro  servant  of  a  staff-officer  was  so  badly 
frightened  that  he  brought  up  his  master's  horse  with 
the  crupper  about  the  neck  instead  of  the  tail.  The  mis 
take  was  discovered  just  in  season  to  save  the  rider 
from  the  proverbial  destiny  of  a  beggar  on  horseback. 

Here  is  a  German  private  very  shaky  in  the  legs  ;  he 
swears  by  Fremont  and  "  fights  mit  Sigel."  Too  much 
"lager"  is  the  trouble  with  him;  and,  in  serene  though 
harmless  inebriety,  he  is  arrested  by  a  file  of  soldiers. 
A  capital  print  in  circulation  represents  a  native  and 
a  German  volunteer,  with  uplifted  mugs  of  the  nectar  of 
Gambrinus,  striking  hands  to  the  motto,  "One  flag,  one 
country,  zwei  lager  T"1 

Here  is  a  detachment  of  Home  Guards,  whose  "uni 
form  is  multiform."  To  a  proposition,  that  the  British 
militia  should  never  be  ordered  out  of  the  country,  Pitt 
once  moved  the  satirical  proviso,  "Except  in  case  of  in 
vasion."  So  it  is  alleged  that  the  Missouri  Home  Guards 
are  very  useful — except  in  case  of  a  battle ;  and  I  hear 
one  merciless  critic  style  them  the  "Home  Cowards." 
This  is  unjust ;  but  they  illustrate  the  principle,  that  to 
attain  good  drill  and  discipline,  soldiers  should  be  be^ 
yond  the  reach  of  home. 

Camp  Lillie,  upon  a  beautiful  grassy  slope,  is  the  head 
quarters  of  the  commander.  In  his  tent,  directing,  by 
telegraph,  operations  throughout  this  great  department^ 
or  upon  horseback,  personally  inspecting  the  regiments, 
you  meet  the  peculiarly  graceful,  slender,  compact,  mag 
netic  man  whose  assignment  here  awoke  so  much  enthu 
siasm  in  the  West.  General  Fremont  is  quiet,  well- 
poised,  and  unassuming.  His  friends  are  very  earnest, 
his  enemies  very  bitter.  Those  who  know  him  only  by 
his  early  exploits,  are  surprised  to  find  in  the  hero  of  the 


1861.]  A  PHYSIOLOGICAL  PHENOMENON.  195 

frontier  the  graces  of  the  saloon.  He  impresses  one  as 
a  man  very  modest,  very  genuine,  and  very  much  in 
earnest. 

His  hair  is  tinged  with  silver.  His  beard  is  sprinkled 
with  snow,  though  two  months  ago  it  was  of  unmingled 
"brown. 

"Nor  turned  it  white 
In  a  single  night, 
As  men's  have  done  from  sudden  fears ;" 

but  it  did  blanch  under  the  absorbing  labors  and  anxie 
ties  of  two  months — a  physiological  fact  which  Doctor 
Holmes  will  be  good  enough  to  explain  to  us  at  Ms  earli 
est  convenience. 

Mrs.  Fremont  is  in  camp,  but  will  return  to  Saint 
Louis  when  the  army  moves.  She  inherits  many  traits 
of  her  father's  character.  She  possesses  that  "  excellent 
thing  in  woman,"  a  voice,  like  Annie  Laurie's,  low  and 
sweet — more  rich,  more  musical,  and  better  modulated, 
than  that  of  any  tragedienne  upon  the  stage.  To  a 
broad,  comprehensive  intellect  she  adds  those  quick  in 
tuitions  which  leap  to  results,  anticipating  explanations, 
and  those  proclivities  for  episode,  incident,  and  bits  of 
personal  analyzing,  which  make  a  woman's  talk  so 
charming. 

How  much  rarer  this  grace  of  familiar  speech  than 
any  other  accomplishment  whatever !  In  a  lifetime  one 
meets  not  more  than  four  or  five  great  conversationalists. 
Jessie  Benton  Fremont  is  among  the  felicitous  few,  if 
not  queen  of  them  all. 

October  8. 

The  army  is  forty  thousand  strong.  Generals  Sigel, 
Hunter,  Pope,  Asboth,  and  McKinstry  command  respect 
ively  its  five  divisions. 


196      SIGEL;  HUNTER,  POPE,  ASBOTH,  McKiNSTRY.      [isei. 

Sigel  is  slender,  pale,  wears  spectacles,  and  looks 
more  like  a  student  than  a  soldier.  He  was  professor  in 
a  university  when  the  war  broke  out. 

Hunter,  at  sixty,  and  agile  as  a  boy,  is  erect  and  grim, 
with  bald  head  and  Hungarian  mustache. 

Pope  is  heavy,  full-faced,  brown-haired,  and  looks 
like  a  man  of  brains. 

Asboth  is  tall,  daring-eyed,  elastic,  a  mad  rider,  and 
profoundly  polite,  bowing  so  low  that  his  long  gray  hair 
almost  sweeps  the  ground. 

McKinstry  is  six  feet  two,  sinewy-framed,  deep-chest 
ed,  firm-faced,  wavy-haired,  and  black-mustached.  He 
looks  like  the  hero  of  a  melodrama,  and  the  Bohemians 
term  him  "the  heavy  tragedian." 

WARSAW,  Mo.,  October  22. 

An  officer  of  ISTew  York  mercantile  antecedents,  re 
cently  appointed  to  a  high  position,  reached  Syracuse  a 
few  days  since,  under  orders  to  report  to  Fremont.  He 
would  come  no  farther  than  the  end  of  the  railroad,  but 
turned  abruptly  back  to  St.  Louis.  Being  asked  his  rea 
son,  he  made  this  reply,  peculiarly  ingenuous  and  racy 
for  a  brigadier-general  and  staff- officer  : 

uWhy,  I  found  that  I  should  have  to  go  on  horse 
back  !" 

With  two  fellow-journalists,  I  left  Syracuse  four  days 
ago.  Asboth' s  and  Sigel' s  divisions  had  preceded  us. 
The  post-commandant  would  not  permit  us  to  come 
through  the  distracted,  guerrilla-infested  country  without 
an  escort,  but  gave  us  a  sergeant  and  four  men  of  the  reg 
ular  army. 

On  the  way  we  spent  the  supper  hour  near  Cole 
Camp.  Our  Falstaffian  landlord  informed  us  that  two 
brothers,  Jim  and  Sam  Cole,  encamped  here  in  early 


1861.]  SIGEL'S  TRANSPORTATION  TRAIN.  197 

days,  to  hunt  bears,  and  that  the  creek  was  named  in 
remembrance  of  them.  Being  asked  with  great  gravity 
the  extremely  Bohemian  question,  "  Which  of  them  T 
he  relapsed  into  a  profound  study,  from  which  he  did 
not  afterward  recover. 

We  made  the  trip — forty-seven  miles — in  ten  hours. 
This  is  a  strong  Secession  village.  Half  its  male  inhabit 
ants  are  in  the  Rebel  army.  Our  officers  quarter  in  the  most 
comfortable  residences.  At  first  the  people  were  greatly 
incensed  at  the  "  Abolition  soldiery,"  but  they  now  sub 
mit  gracefully.  One  of  the  most  malignant  Eebel  fami 
lies  involuntarily  entertains  a  dozen  German  officers,  who 
drink  lager-beer  industriously,  smoke  meerschaums  un 
ceasingly,  and  at  night  sing  unintermittently. 

We  are  quartered  at  the  house  of  a  lady  who  has  a 
son  in  Price' s  army,  and  a  daughter  in  whom  education 
and  breeding  maintain  constant  warfare  with  her  antipa 
thies  toward  the  Union  forces.  Being  told  the  other 
evening  that  one  of  our  party  was  a  Black  Republican, 
she  regarded  him  with  a  wondering  stare,  declaring  that 
she  never  saw  an  Abolitionist  before  in  her  life,  and 
apparently  amazed  that  he  wore  the  human  face  divine  ! 

Sigel,  as  usual,  is  thirty  miles  ahead.  He  has  more  go 
in  him  than  any  other  of  our  generals.  Several  division 
commanders  are  still  waiting  for  transportation,  but  Sigel 
collected  horse-wagons,  ox- wagons,  mule-wagons,  family- 
carriages,  and  stage-coaches,  and  pressed  animals  until  he 
organized  a  most  unique  transportation  train  three  or  four 
miles  long.  He  crossed  his  division  over  the  swift  Osage 
River — three  hundred  yards  wide — in  twenty -four  hours, 
upon  a  single  ferry-boat.  The  Rebels  justly  name  him 
uThe  Flying  Dutchman." 

The  Missourians  along  our  line  of  march  have  very  ex 
travagant  ideas  about  the  Federal  army.  We  stopped  at 


198         A  COUNTRYMAN'S  ESTIMATE  OF  TROOPS.         [isei. 

the  house  of  a  native,  where  ten  thousand  troops  had 
passed.  He  placed  their  number  at  forty  thousand ! 

"I  reckon  you  have,  in  all,  about  seventy  thousand 
men,  and  three  hundred  cannon,  haven't  you  ?"  he 
asked. 

' '  We  have  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  and  six 
hundred  pieces  of  artillery/'  replied  a  wag  in  the  party. 

"Well,"  said  the  countryman,  thoughtfully,  "I 
reckon  you'll  clean  out  old  Price  this  time  1" 


1861.]  A  "  KID-GLOVED"  CORPS.  199 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

Once  more  into  the  breach,  dear  friends,  once  more, 
Or  close  the  wall  up  with  our  English  dead !— KING  HENRY  V. 

GENERAL  FREMONT'  s  Body  Guard  was  composed  of 
picked  young  men  of  unusual  intelligence.  They  were 
all  handsomely  uniformed,  efficiently  armed,  and  moun 
ted  upon  bay  horses.  They  cultivated  the  mustache, 
with  the  rest  of  the  face  smooth — at  least,  not  a  more 
whimsical  decree  than  the  rigid  regulation  of  the  British 
army,  which  compelled  every  man  to  shave  and  wear  a 
stock  under  the  burning  sun  of  the  Crimea.  Many  de 
nounced  the  Guard  as  a  "kid-gloved,"  ornamental  corps, 
designed  only  to  swell  Fremont' s  retinue. 

Major  Zagonyi,  commandant  of  the  Guard,  with  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  his  men,  started  with  orders  to  re- 
connoiter  the  country  in  front  of  us.  When  near  Spring 
field,  they  found  the  town  held  by  a  Rebel  force  of  cav 
alry  and  infantry,  ill  organized,  but  tolerably  armed, 
and  numbering  two  thousand. 

Zagonyi  drew  his  men  up  in  line,  explained  the  situa 
tion,  and  asked  whether  they  would  attack  or  turn  back 
for  re-enforcements.  They  replied  unanimously  that  they 
would  attack. 

They  did  attack.  Men  and  horses  were  very  weary. 
They  had  ridden  fifty  miles  in  seventeen  hours ;  they  had 
never  been  tinder  fire  before  ;  but  history  hardly  paral 
lels  their  daring. 

The  Rebels  formed  in  line  of  battle  at  the  edge 
of  a  wood.  To  approach  them,  the  Guard  were  com- 


200  CHARGE  OF  THE  BODY  GUARD.  [ISGI. 

pelled  to  ride  down  a  narrow  lane,  exposed  to  a  terrible 
fire  from  three  different  directions.  They  went  through 
this  shower  of  bullets,  dismounted,  tore  down  the  high 
zig-zag  fence,  led  their  horses  over  in  the  teeth  of  the 
enemy,  remounted,  formed,  and,  spreading  out,  fan-like, 
charged  impetuously,  shouting  ' '  Fremont  and  the  Union." 

The  engagement  was  very  brief  and  very  bloody. 
Though  only  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  thirteen,  the 
Guard  behaved  as  if  weary  of  their  lives.  Men  ut 
terly  reckless  are  masters  of  the  situation.  At  first,  the 
Confederates  fought  well ;  but  they  were'  soon  panic- 
stricken,  and  many  dropped  their  guns,  and  ran  to  and 
fro  like  persons  distracted. 

The  Guard  charged  through  and  through  the  broken 
ranks  of  the  Rebels,  chased  them  in  all  directions — into 
the  woods,  beyond  the  woods,  down  the  roads,  through 
the  town — and  planted  the  old  flag  upon  the  Spring 
field  court-house,  where  it  had  not  waved  since  the  death 
of  Lyon. 

Armed  with  revolvers  and  revolving  carbines,  mem 
bers  of  the  Guard  had  twelve  shots  apiece.  After 
delivering  their  first  fire,  there  was  no  time  to  reload, 
and  (the  only  instance  of  the  kind  early  in  the  war) 
nearly  all  their  work  was  done  with  the  saber.  When 
they  mustered  again,  almost  every  blade  in  the  com 
mand  was  stained  with  blood. 

Of  their  one  hundred  and  fifty  horses,  one  hundred 
and  twenty  were  wounded.  A  sergeant  had  three  horses 
shot  under  him.  A  private  received  a  bullet  in  a  black 
ing-box,  which  he  carried  in  his  pocket.  They  lost  fifty 
men,  sixteen  of  whom  were  killed  on  the  spot. 

4 '  I  wonder  if  they  will  call  us  fancy  soldiers  and  kid- 
gloved  boys  any  longer?"  said  one,  who  lay  wounded 
in  the  hospital  when  we  arrived. 


1861.]  TURNING  THE  TABLES.  201 

On  a  cot  beside  him,  I  found  an  old  schoolmate.  His 
eye  brightened  as  he  grasped  my  hand. 

"  Is  your  wound  serious  2"  I  asked. 

"  Painful,  but  not  fatal.     O,  it  was  a  glorious  fight !" 

It  was  a  glorious  fight.  Wilson  Creek  is  doubly 
historic  ground.  There  first  a  thousand  of  our  men 
poured  out  their  blood  like  water,  and  the  brave  Lyon 
laid  down  his  life  "for  our  dear  country's  sake."  Two 
months  later,  the  same  stream  witnessed  the  charge  of 
the  Body  Guard,  which,  in  those  dark  days,  when  the 
Cause  looked  gloomy,  thrilled  every  loyal  heart  in  the 
nation.  It  will  shine  down  the  historic  page,  and  be 
immortal  in  song  and  story. 

Major  Frank  J.  White,  of  our  army,  was  with  the 
Rebels  as  a  prisoner  of  war  during  the  charge.  Just  be 
fore  they  were  routed,  fourteen  men,  under  a  South  Caro 
lina  captain,  started  with  him  for  General  Price' s  camp. 
At  a  house  where  they  spent  the  night,  the  fanner 
boldly  avowed  himself  a  Union  man.  He  supposed 
White  to  be  one  of  the  Rebel  officers ;  but,  finding  a 
moment's  opportunity,  the  major  whispered  to  him  : 

' '  I  am  a  Union  prisoner.  Send  word  to  Springfield 
at  once,  and  my  men  will  come  and  rescue  me." 

The  Rebels,  leaving  one  man  on  picket  outside,  went 
to  bed  in  the  same  room  with  their  prisoner.  Then  the 
farmer  sent  his  little  boy  of  twelve  years,  on  horseback, 
fourteen  miles  to  Springfield.  At  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  twenty -six  Home  Guards  surrounded  the 
house,  and  captured  the  entire  party.  Major  White 
at  once  took  command,  and  posted  Jiis  guards  over  the 
crestfallen  Confederates. 

While  they  sat  around  the  fire  in  the  evening,  waiting 
for  supper,  the  Rebel  captain  had  remarked  : 

"Major,  we  have  a  little  leisure,  and  I  believe  I  will 


202  WELCOME  FROM  UNION  RESIDENTS.  [isei. 

amuse  myself  by  looking  over  your  papers."  Where 
upon  lie  spent  an  hour  in  examining  the  letters  which 
he  found  in  White' s  possession.  In  the  morning,  when 
the  party,  again  sitting  "by  the  fire,  waited  for  breakfast, 
the  major  said,  quietly : 

i '  Captain,  we  have  a  little  leisure,  and  I  think  I  will 
amuse  myself  by  looking  over  your  papers."  So  the 
Rebel  documents  were  scrutinized  in  turn.  White  re 
turned  in  triumph  to  Springfield,  bringing  his  late  cap 
tors  as  prisoners.  A  friendship  sprang  up  between  him 
and  the  South  Carolina  captain,  who  remained  on  parole 
in  our  camp  for  several  days,  and  they  messed  and  slept 
together. 

When  our  troops  entered  Springfield,  the  people 
greeted  them  with  uncontrollable  joy  ;  for  they  were  in 
tensely  loyal,  and  had  been  under  Rebel  rule  more  than 
eleven  weeks.  Scores  and  scores  of  National  flags  now 
suddenly  emerged  from  mysterious  hiding-places  ;  wan 
dering  exiles  came  pouring  back,  and  we  were  welcomed 
by  hundreds  of  glad  faces,  waving  handkerchiefs,  swing 
ing  hats,  and  vociferous  huzzas. 

Fremont  had  now  modified  his  Proclamation ;  but  the 
logic  of  events  was  stronger  than  President  Lincoln. 
The  negroes  would  throng  our  camp,  and  Fremont  never 
permitted  a  single  one  to  be  returned.  One  slave  appro 
priated  a  horse,  and,  guiding  him  only  by  a  rope  about 
the  nose,  without  saddle  or  bridle,  blanket  or  spur,  rode 
from  Price's  camp  to  Fremont's  head- quarters,  more  than 
eighty  miles,  in  eighteen  hours. 

A  brigade  of  regular  troops,  under  General  Stur- 
gis,  having  marched  from  Kansas  City,  joined  us  in 
Springfield.  They  were  under  very  rigid  discipline,  and 
all  their  supplies,  whether  procured  from  Rebels  or 
Unionists,  were  paid  for  in  gold.  Sturgis  was  then  very 


i86i.]  FREAKS  OF  THE  KANSAS  BRIGADE.  203 

" conservative,"  and  some  of  our  people  denounced  him 
as  disloyal.  But,  like  hundreds  of  others,  inexorable 
war  educated  him  very  rapidly.  His  sympathies  were 
soon  heartily  on  our  side.  He  afterward,  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  won  and  wore  bright  laurels. 

The  Kansas  volunteer  brigade,  under  General  ' '  Jim' ' 
Lane,  also  joined  us  at  Springfield.  Their  course  con 
trasted  sharply  with  that  of  Sturgis'  s  men.  They  had  a 
good  many  old  scores  to  settle  up,  and  they  swept  along 
the  Missouri  border  like  a  hurricane.  Sublimely  indif 
ferent  to  the  President's  orders,  and  all  other  orders 
which  did  not  please  them,  they  received  over  two  thou 
sand  slaves,  sending  them  off  by  installments  into  Kansas. 
When  the  master  was  loyal,  they  would  gravely  appraise 
the  negro ;  give  him  a  receipt  for  his  slave,  named 
— ,  valued  at  -  -  hundred  dollars,  ' '  lost  by  the 
march  of  the  Kansas  Brigade,"  and  advise  him  to  carry 
the  claim  before  Congress  ! 

By  some  unexplained  law,  dandies,  fools,  and  super 
cilious  braggarts  often  gravitate  into  staff  positions  ;  but 
Fremont' s  staff  was  an  exceedingly  agreeable  one.  Many 
of  its  members  had  traveled  over  the  globe,  and,  from 
their  wide  experiences,  whiled  away  many  hours  before 
the  evening  camp-fires. 

On  the  31st  of  October,  the  correspondents,  under  cav 
alry  escort,  visited  the  Wilson  Creek  battle-ground,  ten 
miles  south  of  Springfield. 

The  field  is  broken  by  rocky  ridges  and  deep  ravines, 
and  covered  with  oak  shrubs.  Picking  his  way  among 
the  brushwood,  my  horse' s  hoof  struck  with  a  dull,  hol 
low  sound  against  a  human  skull.  Just  beyond,  still 
clad  in  uniform,  lay  a  skeleton,  on  whose  ghastliness  the 
storms  and  sunshine  of  three  months  had  fallen.  The 
head  was  partially  severed ;  and  though  the  upturned 


204  CAPTURE  OF  A  FEMALE  SPY.  [ISGI. 

face  was  fleshless,  I  could  not  resist  tlie  impression  that 
it  wore  a  look  of  mortal  agony.  It  was  in  a  little  thicket, 
several  yards  from  the  scene  of  any  fighting.  The  poor 
fellow  was  carried  there,  dying  or  dead,  during  the  pro 
gress  of  the  Tbattle,  and  afterward  overlooked.  Among 
our  lost  his  name  was  probably  followed  by  the  sad 
word  "Missing." 

"  Not  among  the  suffering  wounded ; 

Not  among  the  peaceful  dead ; 
Not  among  the  prisoners.     MISSIXG — 
That  was  all  the  message  said. 

"  Yet  his  mother  reads  it  over, 

Until,  through  her  painful  tears, 
Fades  the  dear  name  she  has  called  him 
For  these  t\vo-and-twenty  years." 

Many  graves  had  been  opened  by  wolves.  Bones  of 
horses,  haversacks,  shoes,  blouses,  gun-barrels,  shot,  and 
fragments  of  shell,  were  scattered  over  the  field.  The 
trees  were  scarred  with  bullets,  and  hundreds  were 
felled  by  the  artillery.  A  six-inch  shot  would  cut  down 
one  of  these  brittle  oaks  a  foot  in  diameter. 

A  few  miles  south  of  Springfield  one  of  our  scouts  en 
countered  a  young  woman  on  horseback.  Suspecting 
her  errand,  he  informed  her  confidentially  that  he  was  a 
spy  from  Price's  army,  who  had  been  several  days  in 
Fremont's  camp.  Falling  into  this  palpable  trap,  the 
girl  told  him  frankly  that  slie  was  sent  by  Price  to  visit 
our  forces,  and  obtain  information.  She  was  taken  im 
mediately  to  Fremont's  head-quarters.  Her  terror  was 
very  great  on  finding  herself  betrayed.  She  told  all  she 
knew  about  the  Rebels,  and  was  finally  allowed  to  depart 
in  peace.  The  employment  of  female  spies  was  very 
common  upon  both  sides. 


i86i.]          FREMONT'S  FAREWELL  TO  HIS  ARMY.  205 

On  the  2d  of  November  our  whole  army  was  at  Spring 
field.  Fremont  had  progressed  farther  south  than  any 
other  Union  commander,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Rio 
Grande.  Detachments  of  Rebels  were  within  ten  miles 
of  our  camps.  Emphatic,  but  entirely  false  reports  from 
the  colonel  at  the  head  of  Fremont's  scouts,*  had  given 
the  impression  that  Price's  entire  command  was  very 
near  us  ;  and  a  great  battle  was  hourly  expected. 

Fremont  was  in  the  midst  of  an  important  campaign. 
His  army  was  njpst  patriotic,  enthusiastic,  and  promising. 
His  personal  popularity  among  his  troops  was  without 
parallel. 

At  this  moment  the  official  ax  fell.  He  received  an 
order  to  turn  over  his  command  to  Hunter.  It  was  a 
trying  ordeal,  but  he  did  a  soldier's  duty,  obeying  silently 
and  instantly.  The  first  intelligence  which  the  army  re 
ceived  was  conveyed  by  this  touching  farewell : 

SOLDIERS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  AEMY  :  Agreeably  to  orders  this  clay 
received,  I  take  leave  of  you.  Although  our  army  has  been  of  sudden 
growth,  we  have  grown  up  together,  and  I  have  become  familiar  with 
the  brave  and  generous  spirit  which  you  bring  to  the  defense  of  your 
country,  and  which  makes  me  anticipate  for  you  a  brilliant  career. 

Continue  as  you  have  begun,  and  give  to  my  successor  the  same  cor 
dial  and  enthusiastic  support  with  which  you  have  encouraged  me. 
Emulate  the  splendid  example  already  before  yon,  and  let  me  remain,  as 
I  am,  proud  of  the  noble  army  which  I  have  thus  far  labored  to  bring 
together. 

*  This  officer  was  a  native  Missourian,  deemed  trustworthy,  and 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  country.  He  reported  officially  to  Fremont 
that  the  whole  Rebel  army  was  within  eleven  miles  of  us,  when  it  was 
really  fifty  miles  away.  Then,  indeed,  much  later  in  the  war,  accurate 
information  about  the  enemy  seemed  absolutely  unattainable.  Scott, 
McClellan,  Ilalleck,  Grant,  all  failed  to  procure  it.  Rosecrans  was  the 
first  general  who  kept  himself  thoroughly  advised  of  the  whereabouts, 
strength,  and  designs  of  the  Rebels. 


206  DISAFFECTION  AMONG  THE  SOLDIERS.  [ISGI. 

Soldiers  !  I  regret  to  leave  you.  Sincerely  I  thank  you  for  the  regard 
and  confidence  you  have  invariably  shown  me.  I  deeply  regret  that  I 
shall  not  have  the  honor  to  lead  you  to  the  victory  which  you  are  just 
about  to  win,  but  I  shall  claim  to  share  with  you  in  the  joy  of  every 
triumph,  and  trust  always  to  be  fraternally  remembered  by  my  com 
panions  in  arms. 

Fremont's  name  had  "been  the  rallying-point  of  the 
volunteers.  Officers  and  entire  regiments  had  come  from 
distant  parts  of  the  country  to  serve  under  him.  All 
felt  the  impropriety  and  cruelty  of  his  removal  at  this 
time.  Many  officers  at  o'nce  wrote  their  resignations. 
Whole  battalions  were  reported  laying  down  their  arms. 
The  Germans  were  specially  indignant,  and  among  the 
Body  Guard  there  was  much  bitterness. 

The  slightest  encouragement  or  tolerance  from  the 
General  would  have  produced  wide- spread  mutiny  ;  but 
he  expostulated  with  the  malcontents,  reminding  them 
that  their  first  duty  was  to  the  country  ;  and,  after  Hun 
ter' s  arrival,  left  the  camp  before  daylight,  lest  his  ap 
pearance  among  the  soldiers,  as  he  rode  away,  should 
excite  improper  demonstrations. 

A  few  days  moderated  the  feeling  of  the  troops  ;  for, 
like  all  our  volunteers,  they  were  wedded  not  to  any 
man,  but  to  the  Cause. 

In  St.  Louis,  Fremont  was  received  more  like  a  con 
quering  hero  than  a  retiring  general.  An  immense 
assembly  greeted  him.  In  their  enthusiasm,  the  people 
even  carpeted  his  door-step  with  flowers. 

For  weeks  before  his  removal  the  air  had  been  filled 
with  clamors,  charging  him  with  incompetency,  extrav 
agance,  and  giving  Government  contracts  to  corrupt 
men.  The  first  attacks  upon  him  immediately  followed 
his  Emancipation  Proclamation,  issued  August  31,  1861. 

There  were  many  half-hearted  Unionists  in  Missouri. 


1861.]  SPURIOUS  MISSOURI  UNIONISTS.  207 

For  example,  shortly  after  the  capture  of  Sumter,  Gen 
eral  Robert  Wilson,  of  Andrew  County,  in  a  public 
meeting,  served  upon  the  committee  on  resolutions  re 
porting  the  following : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  condemn  as  inhuman  and  diabolical  the  war 
being  waged  by  the  Government  against  the  South." 

Eight  months  after,  this  same  Wilson  claimed  to  "be  a 
Union  leader,  and,  as  such,  was  sent  to  represent  Mis 
souri  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States !  Of  course  a]l 
men  of  this  class  waged  unrelenting  war  upon  Fremont. 
Afterward  there  was  a  rupture  among  the  really  loyal 
men ;  a  fierce  quarrel,  in  which  the  able  but  un 
scrupulous  Blairs  headed  the  opposition,  and  some  zeal 
ous  and  patriotic  Unionists  co-operated  with  them.  The 
President,  always  conscientious,  was  persuaded  to  re 
move  the  General ;  but  afterward  tacitly  admitted  its 
injustice  by  giving  him  another  command. 

Mr.  Lincoln  also  countermanded  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  which  was  a  little  ahead  of  the  times. 
Still  it  gratified  the  plain  people,  even  then.  Tired  of  the 
tender  and  delicate  terms  in  which  our  authorities  were 
wont  to  speak  of  "domestic  institutions"  and  "systems 
of  labor,"  they  were  delighted  to  read  the  announce 
ment  in  honest  Saxon : 

"  The  property  of  active  Rebels  is  confiscated  for  the  public  use  ; 
and  their  slaves,  if  any  they  have,  are  hereby  declared  Free  Men." 

It  was  a  new  and  pure  leaf  in  the  history  of  the  war. 

Of  course  Fremont  made  mistakes,  though  the  abuses 
in  his  department  were  infinitely  less  than  those  which 
disgraced  Washington,  and  which  in  some  degree  are 
inseparable  from  large,  unusual  disbursements  of  public 
money. 


208  CONDUCT  OF  CAMERON  AND  THOMAS.  [isei. 

But  lie  was  very  earnest.  He  was  quite  ignorant  of 
How  Not  to  Do  it.  He  took  grave  responsibilities. 
When  red  tape  hampered  him,  he  cut  it.  Unalble  to  ob 
tain  arms  at  Washington — which,  in  those  days,  knew 
only  Virginia — he  ransacked  the  markets  of  the  world 
for  them.  When  a  paymaster  refused  to  liquidate  one 
of  his  bills,  on  the  ground  of  irregularity,  he  arrested 
him,  and  threatened  to  have  him  shot  if  he  persisted. 
Able  to  leave  but  few  troops  in  St.  Louis,  he  fortified  the 
city  in  thirty  days,  employing  five  thousand  laborers. 

Secretary  Cameron  and  Adjutant- General  Thomas 
visited  Missouri,  after  Fremont  started  upon  his  Spring 
field  campaign.  General  Thomas  did  not  hesitate,  in 
railway  cars  and  hotels,  to  condemn  him  violently — a 
gross  breach  of  official  propriety,  and  clearly  tending  to 
excite  insubordination  among  the  soldiers.  Cameron 
dictated  a  letter,  ordering  Fremont  to  discontinue  the 
St.  Louis  fortifications  as  unnecessary,  informing  him 
that  his  official  debts  would  not  be  discharged  till  inves 
tigated,  his  contracts  recognized,  or  the  officers  paid 
whom  he  hadxappointed  under  the  written  authority  of 
the  President. 

In  due  time  they  were  recognized  and  paid.  The  St. 
Louis  fortifications  proved  needful,  and  were  afterward 
finished.  Yet  Cameron  permitted  the  contents  of  this 
letter  to  be  telegraphed  all  over  the  country  four  days 
before  Fremont  received  it.  It  seemed  designed  to 
impugn  his  integrity,  destroy  his  credit,  promote  disaf 
fection  in  his  camps,  and  prevent  his  contractors  from 
fulfilling  their  engagements.  Thomas  officially  reported 
that  Fremont  would  not  be  able  to  move  his  army  for 
lack  of  transportation.  Before  the  report  could  reach 
Washington,  the  army  had  advanced  more  than  a  hun 
dred  miles ! 


i86i.]        DISREGARD  OF  THE  ARMY  REGULATIONS.         209 

Time,  which  at  last  makes  all  tilings  even,  vindicated 
Fremont's  leading  measures  in  Missouri.  His  subse 
quent  withdrawal  from  the  field,  in  Virginia,  was  doubt 
less  unwise.  It  was  hard  to  be  placed  under  a  junior 
and  hostile  general ;  but  private  wrongs  must  wait  in 
war,  and  resignation  proves  quite  as  inadequate  a  rem 
edy  for  the  grievances  of  an  officer,  as  Secession  for  the 
fancied  wrongs  of  the  Slaveholders. 

Brigadier- General  Justus  McKinstry,  ex- Quartermas 
ter  of  the  Western  Department,  was  arrested,  and  closely 
confined  in  the  St.  Louis  arsenal  for  many  months.  His 
repeated  demands  for  the  charges  and  specifications 
against  him  were  disregarded.  He  was  at  last  court-mar 
tialed  and  dismissed  the  service,  on  the  charge  of  mal 
feasance  in  office.  Brigadier- General  Charles  P.  Stone 
was  for  a  long  time  kept  under  arrest  in  the  same  man 
ner.  These  proceedings  flagrantly  violated  both  the 
Army  Regulation,  entitling  officers  to  know  the  charges 
and  witnesses  against  them,  within  ten  days  after  arrest, 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  itself,  which  guarantees 
to  every  man  a  speedy  public  trial  in  the  presence  of  his 
accusers. 

Equally  reprehensible  was  the  arrest  and  long  confine 
ment  of  many  civilians  without  formal  charges  or  trial. 
States  where  actual  war  existed,  and  even  the  debatable 
ground  which  bordered  them,  might  be  proper  fields  for 
this  exercise  of  the  Military  Power.  But  the  friends  of 
the  Union,  holding  Congress,  and  nearly  every  State  Le 
gislature  by  overwhelming  majorities,  could  make  what 
ever  laws  they  pleased ;  therefore,  these  measures  were 
unnecessary  and  unjustifiable  in  the  North,  hundreds  of 
miles  from  the  seat  of  war.  Utterly  at  variance  with  per 
sonal  rights  and  republican  institutions,  they  were  alarming 
and  dangerous  precedents,  which  any  unscrupulous  fu- 

14 


210  MILITARY  POWER  AND  THE  PRESS.  [ISGI. 

ture  administration  may  plausibly  cite  in  defense  of  the 
grossest  outrages.  President  Lincoln  was  always  very 
chary  of  this  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  ;  but  some  of  his 
constitutional  advisers  were  constantly  urging  it.  Secre 
tary  Stanton,  in  particular,  advocated  and  committed  acts 
of  flagrant  despotism.  He  was  a  good  patent-office 
lawyer,  but  had  not  the  faintest  conception  of  those  pri 
mary  principles  of  Civil  Liberty  which  underlie  English 
and  American  institutions.  Even  the  Magna  Charta,  in 
sonorous  Latin,  declared  : 

"  No  person  shall  be  apprehended  or  imprisoned,  except  by  the  legal 
judgment  of  his  peers,  or  the  law  of  the  land.  To  none  will  we  sell,  to 
none  will  we  deny,  to  none  will  we  delay  right  or  justice." 

Kindred  questions  arose  touching  the  Military  Power 
and  the  Liberty  of  the  Press.  Each  northern  city  had 
its  daily  journal,  which,  under  thin  disguise  of  loyalty, 
labored  zealously  for  the  Rebels.  Soldiers  could  not 
patiently  read  treasonable  sheets.  On  several  occasions 
military  commanders  suppressed  them,  but  the  President 
promptly  removed  the  disability.  The  sober  second 
thought  of  the  people  was,  that  if  editors  and  publishers 
in  the  loyal  North  could  not  be  convicted  and  punished 
in  the  civil  courts,  they  should  not  be  molested. 

General  Hunter,  succeeding  Fremont,  evacuated 
southwestern  Missouri.  Before  ]eaving  Springfield,  be 
sieged  with  applications  for  runaway  slaves,  he  issued 
orders  to  deliver  them  up  ;  but  soldiers  and  officers  in  his 
camps  hid  them  so  safely  that  they  could  not  be  found 
by  their  masters. 

Hunter's  little  brief  authority  lasted  just  fifteen  days, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  General  Halleck — a  stout, 
heavy-faced,  rather  stupid -looking  officer,  who  wore 


1861.]  RUDENESS  OF  GENERAL  HALLECK.  211 

civilian's  dress,  and  resembled  a  well-to-do  tradesman. 
On  the  20th  of  November  appeared  his  shameful  General 
Order  Number  Three : 

"It  has  been  represented  that  important  information  respecting  the 
numbers  and  condition  of  our  forces  is  conveyed  to  the  enemy  by  means 
of  fugitive  slaves  who  are  admitted  within  our  lines.  In  order  to  remedy 
this  evil,  it  is  directed  that  no  such  persons  be  hereafter  permitted  to  en 
ter  the  lines  of  any  camp,  or  of  any  forces  on  the  march,  and  that  any 
now  within  our  lines  be  immediately  excluded  therefrom." 

Its  inhumanity  outraged  the  moral  sense,  and  its 
falsehood  the  common  sense,  of  the  country.  The  ne 
groes  were  uniformly  friends  to  our  soldiers.  After  dili 
gent  inquiry  from  every  leading  officer  of  my  acquaint 
ance,  I  could  not  learn  a  single  instance  of  treachery.  To 
the  cruelty  of  turning  the  slave  away,  Halleck  added  the 
dishonesty  of  slandering  him. 

When  Charles  James  Fox  was  canvassing  for  Parlia- 
liament,  one  of  his  auditors  said  to  him  : 

"  Sir,  I  admire  your  talents,  but  d — n  your  politics!" 

Fox  retorted:  "Sir,  I  admire  your  frankness,  but 
d — n  your  manners  !" 

Many  who  had  official  business  with  Halleck  uttered 
similar  maledictions.  To  his  visitors  he  was  brusque  to 
surliness.  Dr.  Holmes  says,  with  great  truth,  that  all 
men  are  bores  when  we  do  not  want  them.  Like  all 
public  characters,  Halleck  was  beset  by  those  grievous 
dispensations  of  Providence.  But  a  general  in  command 
of  half  a  continent  ought,  at  least,  to  have  the  manners 
of  a  gentleman  ;  and  he  was  sometimes  so  insulting  that 
his  legitimate  visitors  would  have  been  justified  in  kick 
ing  him  down  stairs.  None  of  our  high  officials  equaled 
him  in  rudeness,  except  Mr.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War. 

In  January,  as  a  Government  steamer  approached  the 


212  A  DROLL  FLAG  OF  TRUCE.  [1862. 

landing  at  Commerce,  Missouri,  two  women  on  shore 
shouted  to  the  pilot : 

"  Don't  land!  Jeff.  Thompson  and  his  soldiers  are 
here  waiting  for  you." 

The  redoubtable  guerrilla,  with  fifty  men,  instantly 
sprang  from  behind  a  wood-pile  and  fired  a  volley. 
Twenty-six  bullets  entered  the  cabin  of  the  retreating 
boat ;  but,  thanks  to  the  loyal  women,  no  person  was 
killed  or  captured. 

One  day,  a  seedy  individual  in  soiled  gray  walked  into 
Halleck's  private  room  at  the  Planter's  House,  in  St. 
Louis,  and,  with  the  military  salute,  thus  addressed  him : 

"  Sir,  I  am  an  officer  of  General  Price's  army,  and 
have  brought  you  a  letter  under  flag  of  truce." 

"  Where's  your  flag  of  truce  ?"  growled  Halleck. 

4 'Here,"  was  the  prompt  reply,  and  the  Rebel  pulled 
a  dirty  white  rag  from  his  pocket ! 

He  had  entered  our  lines,  and  come  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles,  without  detection,  passing  pickets,  sentinels, 
guards,  and  provost-marshals.  Halleck,  who  plumed 
himself  on  his  organizing  capacity  and  rigid  police  regu 
lations,  was  not  a  little  chagrined.  He  sent  back  the 
unique  messenger  with  a  letter,  assuring  Price  that  he 
would  shoot  as  a  spy  any  one  repeating  the  attempt. 


1862.]  REBEL  GUERRILLAS  OUTWITTED.  213 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Thou  hast  most  traitorously  corrupted  the  youth  of  the  realm  by  erecting  a  grammar- 
whool.— KINO  HKNUY  VI. 

O,  'twas  n  din  to  fright  a  monster's  car, 
To  wake  an  earthquake  ! 

—TEMPEST. 

IN  January,  Colonel  Lawson,  of  the  Missouri  Union 
forces,  was  captured  by  a  dozen  Rebels,  who,  after  some 
threats  of  hanging,  decided  to  release  him  upon  parole. 
Not  one  of  them  could  read  or  write  a  line.  Lawson, 
requested  by  them  to  make  out  his  own  parole,  drew  up 
and  signed  an  agreement,  pledging  himself  never  to  take 
up  arms  against  the  United  States  of  America,  or  give  aid 
and  comfort  to  its  enemies  !  Upon  this  novel  promise  he 
was  set  at  liberty. 

On  the  3d  of  February  a  journalistic  friend  tele 
graphed  me  from  Cairo : 

"  You  can't  come  too  soon :    take  the  first  train." 

Immediately  obeying  the  summons,  I  found  that 
Commodore  Foote  had  gone  up  the  Tennessee  River 
with  the  new  gunboats.  The  accompanying  land  forces 
were  under  the  command  of  an  Illinois  general  named 
Grant,  of  whom  the  country  knew  only  the  following  : 

Making  a  reconnoissance  to  Belmont,  Missouri,  oppo 
site  Columbus,  Kentucky,  he  had  ventured  too  far,  when 
the  enemy  opened  on  him.  Yielding  to  the  fighting  temp 
tation,  he  made  a  lively  resistance,  until  compelled  to  re 
treat,  leaving  behind  his  dead  and  wounded.  Jefferson 
Davis  officially  proclaimed  it  a  great  Confederate  success, 


214  EXPEDITION  TO  FORT  HENRY.  [1862. 

and  Rebel  newspapers  grew  merry  over  Grant' s  bad  gen 
eralship,  expressing  the  wish  that  he  might  long  lead  the 
Yankee  armies ! 


"  We,  ignorant  of  ourselves, 


Beg  often  for  our  own  harms ;  so  find  we  profit 
By  losing  of  our  prayers." 

As  the  gunboats  had  never  been  tested,  intense  inter 
est  was  felt  in  their  success.  Approaching  Fort  Henry, 
three  went  forward  to  reconnoiter.  At  the  distance  of 
two  miles  and  a  half,  a  twenty-four  pounder  rifled  ball 
penetrated  the  state-room  of  Captain  Porter,  commanding 
the  Essex,  passing  under  his  table,  and  cutting  off  the  feet 
of  a  pair  of  stockings  which  hung  against  the  ceiling  as 
neatly  as  shears  would  have  cut  them. 

" Pretty  good  shot!"  said  Porter.  "Now  we  will 
show  them  ours."  And  he  dropped  a  nine-inch  Dahl- 
gren  shell  right  into  the  fort. 

The  next  day,  a  large  number  of  torpedoes,  each  con 
taining  seventy-five  pounds  of  powder,  were  fished  up 
from  the  bottom  of  the  river.  The  imprudent  tongue  of 
an  angry  Rebel  woman  revealed  their  whereabouts. 
Prophesying  that  the  whole  fleet  would  be  blown  to 
atoms,  she  was  compelled  to  divulge  what  she  knew,  or 
be  confined  in  the  guard-house.  In  mortal  terror  she 
gave  the  desired  information.  The  torpedoes  were  found 
wet  and  harmless.  Commodore  Foote  predicted, 

' '  I  can  take  that  fort  in  about  an  hour  and  a  half. ' ' 

The  night  was  excessively  rainy  and  severe  upon  our 
boys  in  blue  in  their  forest  bivouacs ;  but  in  the  well- 
furnished  cabin  of  General  Grant's  steamer,  we  found 
"going  to  war"  an  agreeable  novelty. 

At  mid-day  on  the  6th,  Foote  fired  his  first  shot,  at  the 
distance  of  seventeen  hundred  yards.  Then  he  slowly 


1862.]  ITS  CAPTURE  BY  COMMODORE  FOOTE.  215 

approached  the  fort  with  his  entire  fleet,  until  within  four 
hundred  yards.  The  Rebel  fire  was  very  severe  ;  but  he 
determined  to  vindicate  the  iron-dads  or  to  sink  them  in 
the  Tennessee.  The  wood- work  of  his  flag- ship  was  rid 
dled  by  thirty-one  shots,  but  her  iron  plating  turned  off  the 
balls  like  hail.  All  the  boats  were  more  or  less  damaged ; 
but  they  fully  established  their  usefulness,  and  their  offi 
cers  and  men  behaved  with  the  greatest  gallantry.  One 
poor  fellow  on  the  Essex,  terribly  scalded  by  the  burst 
ing  of  a  steam  drum,  learning  that  the  fort  was  captured, 
sprung  from  his  bunk,  ran  up  the  hatchway,  and  cheered 
until  he  fell  senseless  upon  the  deck.  He  died  the  same 
night. 

With  several  fellow- correspondents,  I  witnessed  the 
fight  from  the  top  of  a  high  tree,  up  on  the  river-bank,  be 
tween  the  fortification  and  the  gun-boats.  There  was  little 
to  be  seen  but  smoke.  Foote's  prediction  proved  correct. 
After  he  had  fired  about  six  hundred  shots,  just  one  hour 
and  fifteen  minutes  from  the  beginning,  the  colors  of  Fort 
Henry  were  struck,  and  the  gunboats  trembled  with  the 
cheers  and  huzzas  of  our  men. 

The  Rebel  infantry,  numbering  four  thousand,  es 
caped.  Grant's  forces,  detained  by  the  mud,  came  up 
too  late  to  surround  them.  Brigadier-General  Lloyd 
Tilghman,  commanding,  and  the  immediate  garrison, 
were  captured. 

In  the  barracks  we  found  camp-fires  blazing,  dinners 
boiling,  and  half-made  biscuits  still  in  the  pans.  Pistols, 
muskets,  bowie-knives,  books,  tables  partially  set  for 
dinner,  half-written  letters,  playing-cards,  blankets,  and 
carpet-sacks  were  scattered  about. 

Our  soldiers  ransacked  trunks,  arrayed  themselves  in ' 
Rebel  coats,  hats,  and  shirts,  armed  themselves  with 
Rebel  revolvers,  stuffed  their  pockets  with  Rebel  books 


216  A  DELIGHTED  NEGRESS.  [1862. 

and  miniatures,  and  some  were  soon  staggering  under 
heavy  loads  of  Kebel  whisky. 

From  the  quarters  of  one  officer,  I  abstracted  a  small 
Confederate  flag ;  the  daguerreotype  of  a  female  face  so 
regular  and  classic  that,  without  close  inspection,  it  was 
difficult  to  believe  it  taken  from  life ;  a  long  tress  of 
brown  hair,  and  a  package  of  elegantly  written  letters, 
full  of  a  sister' s  affection.  A  year  afterward  I  was  able 
to  return  these  family  mementoes  to  their  owner  in  Jack 
son,  Mississippi. 

Our  shots  had  made  great  havoc.  Carpet-sacks,  trunks, 
and  tables  were  torn  in  pieces,  walls  and  roofs  were 
pierced  with  holes  large  enough  for  a  man  to  creep 
through,  and  cavities  plowed  in  the  ground  which  would 
conceal  a  flour-barrel.  A  female  Marius  among  the  ruins, 
in  the  form  of  an  old  negress,  stood  rubbing  her  hands 
with  glee. 

"  You  seem  to  have  had  hot  work  here,  aunty." 

"Lord,  yes,  mass'r,  we  did  just  dat !  De  big  balls, 
dey  come  whizzing  and  tearing  'bout,  and  I  thought  de 
las'  judgment  was.  cum,  sure." 

"Where  are  all  your  soldiers?" 

"Lord  A' mighty  knows.  Dey  jus'  runned  away 
like  turkeys — nebber  fired  a  gun." 

"  How  many  were  there  ?" 

"Derewas  one  Arkansas  regiment  over  dere  where 
you  see  de  tents,  a  Mississippi  regiment  dere,  another 
dere,  two  Tennessee  regiments  here,  and  lots  more  over 
de  river." 

"  Why  didn't  you  run  with  them  ?" 

"I  was  sick,  you  see"  (she  could  only  speak  in  a 
whisper);  "besides,  I  wasn't  afraid — only  ob  de  shots, 
I  just  thought  if  dey  didn't  kill  me  I  was  all  right." 

"Where  is  General  Tilghman r 


1862.]          SCENES  IN  THE  CAPTURED  FORTRESS.  217 

"You  folks  lias  got  liim — him  and  de  whole  garrison 
inside  de  fort." 

"  You  don't  seem  to  feel  very  badly  about  it." 

"  Not  berry,  mass'r  !" — with  a  fresh  rub  of  the  hands 
and  a  grin  all  over  her  sable  face. 

In  the  fort,  the  magazine  was  torn  open,  the  guns 
completely  shattered,  and  the  ground  stained  with 
blood,  brains,  and  fragments  of  flesh.  •  Under  gray  blan 
kets  were  six  corpses,  one  with  the  head  torn  off  and 
the  trunk  completely  blackened  with  powder ;  others 
with  legs  severed  and  breasts  opened  in  ghastly  wounds. 
The  survivors,  stretched  upon  cots,  rent  the  air  with 
groans. 

The  captured  Rebel  officers,  in  a  profusion  of  gold 
lace,  were  taken  to  Grant's  head-quarters.  Tilghman 
was  good-looking,  broad-shouldered,  with  the  pompous 
manner  of  the  South.  Commodore  Foote  asked  him  : 

" How  could  you  fight  against  the  old  flag?" 

"It  was  hard,"  he  replied,  "but  I  had  to  go  with 
my  people." 

Presently  a  Chicago  reporter  inquired  of  him : 

"How  do  you  spell  your  name,  General?" 

"Sir,"  replied  Tilghman,  with  indescribable  pom 
posity,  ' '  if  General  Grant  wishes  to  use  my  name  in  his 
official  dispatches,  I  have  no  objection ;  but,  sir,  I  do 
not  wish  to  appear  at  all  in  this  matter  in  any  newspaper 
report." 

"I  merely  asked  it,"  persisted  the  journalist,  "for 
the  list  of  prisoners  captured." 

Tilghman,  whose  name  should  have  been  Turvey- 
drop,  replied,  with  a  lofty  air  and  a  majestic  wave  of  the 
hand  : 

"  You  will  oblige,  me,  sir,  by  not  giving  my  name  in 
any  newspaper  connection  whatever!" 


218  COMMODORE  FOOTE  IN  THE  PULPIT.  [1862. 

One  of  the  Rebel  officers  was  reminded  of  the  pre 
dominance  of  Union  sentiments  among  the  people  about 
Fort  Henry. 

"True,  sir,"  was  his  reply.  "It  is  always  so  in 
these  hilly  countries.  You  see,  these  d — d  Hoosiers 
don't  know  any  better.  For  the  genuine  southern  feel 
ing,  sir,  you  must  go  among  the  gentlemen — the  rich 
people.  You  won't  find  any  Tories  there." 

The  gunboats  returned  to  Cairo  for  repairs.  On  the 
next  Sunday  morning,  the  pastor  of  the  Cairo  Presby 
terian  Church  failing  to  arrive,  Commodore  Foote  was 
induced  to  conduct  the  services.  From  the  text : 

"Let  not  your  hearts  be  troubled;  ye  believe  in  God;  believe 
also  in  me," 

he  preached  an  excellent  practical  discourse,  urging  that 
human  happiness  depends  upon  integrity,  pure  living, 
and  conscientious  performance  of  duty. 

The  land  forces  remained  near  Fort  Henry.  A  few 
days  after  the  battle,  I  stepped  into  General  Grant's 
head- quarters  to  bid  him  good-by,  as  I  was  about  start 
ing  for  New  York. 

"  You  had  better  wait  a  day  or  two,"  he  said. 

"Why?" 

"  Because  I  am  going  over  to  capture  Fort  Donel- 
son  to-morrow." 


"  How  strong  is  it  ?" 

u 


We  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  exactly,  but  I 
think  we  can  take  it.     At  all  events,  we  can  try." 

The  hopelessly  muddy  roads  and  the  falling  snow 
were  terrible  to  our  troops,  who  had  no  tents  ;  but  Grant 
marched  to  the  fort.  On  Wednesday  he  skirmished  and 
placed  his  men  in  position ;  on  Thursday,  Friday,  and 
Saturday,  he  fought  from  daylight  until  dark.  On  Sat- 


1862.]  THE  CAPTURE  OF  FORT  DONELSON.  219 

urday  night,  tlie  sanguine  General  Pillow  telegraphed  to 
Nashville : 

"  The  day  is  ours.  I  have  repulsed  the  enemy  at  all  points,  but  I 
want  re-enforcements." 

Before  dawn  on  Sunday,  the  negro  servant  of  a  Con 
federate  staff  officer  escaped  into  our  lines,  and  was 
taken  to  General  Grant.  lie  insisted  that  the  Rebel 
commanders  were  consulting  about  surrender,  and  that 
Floyd's  men  were  already  deserting  the  fort.  A  few 
hours  later  came  a  letter  from  Buckner,  suggesting  the 
appointment  of  commissioners  to  adjust  terms  of  capitu 
lation.  Grant  wrote  in  answer : 

"  I  have  no  terms  but  unconditional  surrender.  I  propose  to  move 
immediately  upon  your  •works." 

Buckner' s  response,  exquisitely  characteristic  of  the 
Rebels,  regretfully  accepted  what  he  described  as 
Grant's  ''ungenerous  and  unchivalrous  terms!"  So 
the  North  was  electrified  by  a  success  which  recalled 
the  great  battles  of  Napoleon. 

Grant  first  invested  the  garrison  with  thirteen  thou 
sand  men.  The  enemy' s  force  was  twenty-two  thousand. 
For  two  days,  Grant's  little  command  laid  siege  to  this 
much  larger  army,  which  was  protected  by  ample  forti 
fications.  At  the  end  of  the  second  day,  Grant  received 
re-enforcements,  swelling  his  forces  to  twenty-six  thou 
sand. 

From  three  to  four  thousand  Rebels,  of  Floyd' s  com 
mand,  escaped  from  the  fort ;  others  escaped  on  the  way 
to  Cairo,  and  several  thousand  were  killed  or  wounded ; 
but  Grant  delivered,  at  Cairo,  upward  of  fifteen  thou 
sand  eight  hundred  prisoners. 

I  was  in  Chicago  when  these  captives,  on  their  way 


220         ARMY  AND  NAVY  OFFICERS  CONTRASTED.       [1862. 

to  Camp  Douglas,  passed  through  the  streets  in  sad  pro 
cession.  Motley  was  the  only  wear.  A  few  privates  had 
a  stripe  on  the  pantaloons  and  wore  gray  military  caps  ; 
"but  most,  in  slouched  hats  and  garments  of  gray  or  "but 
ternut,  made  no  attempt  at  uniform.  Some  had  the 
long  hair  and  cadaverous  faces  of  the  extreme  South ; 
"but  under  the  broad-brimmed  hats  of  the  majority, 
appeared  the  full,  coarse  features  of  the  working  classes 
of  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas.  The  Chicago 
citizens,  who  crowded  the  streets,  were  guilty  of  no 
taunts  or  rude  words  toward  the  prisoners. 

Columbus,  Kentucky,  t \venty  miles  below  Cairo,  on 
the  highest  bluffs  of  the  Mississippi,  was  called  the 
Gibraltar  of  the  West,  and  expected  to  be  the  scene  of 
a  great  battle. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  a  naval  and  land  expedition 
was  ready  to  attack  it.  Before  leaving  Cairo,  hundreds 
of  workmen  crowded  the  gunboats,  repairing  damages 
received  on  the  Tennessee  River — 

"  With  busy  hammers  closing  rivets  up, 
And  giving  dreadful  notes  of  preparation." 

Commodore  Foote,  lame  from  his  Donelson  wound, 
hobbled  on  board  upon  crutches.  A  great  National  flag 
was  taken  along. 

" Don't  forget  that,"  said  the  commodore.  "Fight 
or  no  fight,  we  must  raise  it  over  Columbus  !" 

The  leading  commanders  of  the  flotilla  were  from  the 
regular  navy — quiet  and  unassuming,  with,  no  nonsense 
about  them.  They  were  far  freer  from  envy  and  jeal 
ousy  than  army  officers.  Before  the  war,  the  latter  had 
been  stationed  for  years  at  frontier  posts,  hundreds  of 
miles  beyond  civilization,  with  no  resources  except 


1862.]  THE  "GIBRALTAR  OF  THE  WEST."  221 

drinking  and  gambling,  nothing  to  excite  National  feel 
ing  or  prick  the  bubble  of  their  State  pride.  Naval 
officers,  going  all  over  the  world,  had  acquired  the  lib 
erality  which  only  travel  imparts,  and  learned  that, 
abroad,  their  country  was  not  known  as  Virginia  or  Mis 
sissippi,  but  the  United  States  of  America.  With  them, 
it  was  the  Nation  first,  and  the  State  afterward.  Hence, 
while  nearly  all  southerners  holding  commissions  in  the 
regular  army  joined  the  Rebellion,  the  navy  almost 
unanimously  remained  loyal. 

The  low,  flat,  black  iron-clads  crept  down  the  river 
like  enormous  turtles.  Each  had  attending  it  a  little 
pocket  edition  of  a  steamboat,  in  the  shape  of  a  tug, 
capable  of  carrying  fifty  or  sixty  men,  arid  moving  up 
the  strong  current  twelve  miles  an  hour.  They  were 
constantly  puffing  about  among  the  unwieldy  vessels 
like  a  breathless  little  errand-boy. 

Nearing  Columbus,  we  found  that  the  Rebels  had 
evacuated  it  twelve  hours  before.  The  town  was  already 
held  by  an  enterprising  scouting  party  of  the  Second 
Illinois  Cavalry,  who  had  unearthed  and  raised  an  old 
National  flag.  Our  colors  waved  from  the  Rebel  Gi 
braltar,  and  the  last  Confederate  soldier  had  abandoned 
Kentucky. 

The  enemy  left  in  hot  haste.  Half-burned  barracks, 
chairs,  beds,  tables,  cooking- stoves,  letters,  charred  gun- 
carriages,  bent  musket-barrels,  bayonets,  and  provi 
sions  were  promiscuously  lying  about. 

The  main  fortifications,  on  a  plateau  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  high,  mounted  eighty -three  guns,  com 
manding  the  river  for  nearly  three  miles.  Here,  and  in 
the  auxiliary  works,  we  captured  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pieces  of  artillery. 

Fastened  to  the  bluff,  we  found  one  end  of  a  great 


222  SCENES  IN  COLUMBUS,  KENTUCKY.  [1862. 

chain  cable,  composed  of  seven-eighths  inch  iron,  which 
the  "brilliant  Gideon  J.  Pillow  had  stretched  across 
the  river,  to  prevent  the  passage  of  our  gunboats  !  It 
was  worthy  of  the  man  who,  in  Mexico,  dug  his  ditch 
on  the  wrong  side  of  the  parapet.  The  momentum  of  an 
iron-clad  would  have  snapped  it  like  a  pipe-stem,  had 
not  the  current  of  the  river  broken  it  long  before. 

We  found,  also,  enormous  piles  of  torpedoes,  which 
the  Rebels  had  declared  would  annihilate  the  Yankee 
fleet.  They  became  a  standing  jest  among  our  officers, 
who  termed  them  original  members  of  the  Peace  Society, 
and  averred  that  the  rates  of  marine  insurance  imme 
diately  declined  whenever  the  companies  learned  that 
torpedoes  had  been  planted  in  the  waters  where  the 
boats  were  to  run  ! 

In  the  abandoned  post-office  I  collected  a  bushel  of 
Rebel  newspapers,  dating  back  for  several  weeks.  At 
first  the  Memphis  journals  extravagantly  commended  the 
South  Carolina  planters  for  burning  their  cotton,  after  the 
capture  of  Port  Royal,  and  urged  universal  imitation  of 
their  example.  They  said  :— 

"  Let  the  whole  South  be  made  a  Moscow  ;  let  our  enemies  find  noth 
ing  but  blackened  ruins  to  reward  their  invasion!" 

But  when  the  capture  of  Donelson  rendered  the 
early  fall  of  Memphis  probable,  the  same  journals  sud 
denly  changed  their  tone.  They  argued  that  Moscow 
was  not  a  parallel  case  ;  that  it  would  be  highly  injudi 
cious  to  fire  their  city,  as  the  Yankees,  if  they  did  take 
it,  would  hold  it  only  for  a  short  time  ;  that  those  who 
urged  applying  the  torch  should  be  punished  as  dema 
gogues  and  public  enemies  !  But  they  abounded  in  fran 
tic  appeals  like  the  following  from  TJie  AvalancJie  : 

"  For  the  sake  of  honor  and  manhood,  we  trust  no  young  unmarried 


1862.]          EXTRACTS  FROM  REBEL  NEWSPAPERS.  223 

man  will  suffer  himself  to  be  drafted.  He  would  become  a  by-word,  a 
scoff,  a  burning  shame  to  his  sex  and  his  State.  If  young  men  in  panta 
loons  will  sit  behind  desks,  counters,  and  molasses-barrels,  let  the  girls 
present  them  with  the  garment  proper  to  their  peaceable  spirits.  He 
that  would  go  to  the  field,  but  cannot,  should  be  aided  to  do  so ;  he  that 
can  go.  but  will  not,  should  be  made  to  do  so." 

Tlie  AvalancTie  was  a  great  advocate  of  what  is 
termed  the  ' '  aggressive  policy, ' '  declaring  that : 

"  The  victorious  armies  of  the  South  should  be  precipitated  upon  the 
North.  Her  chief  cities  should  be  seized  or  reduced  to  ashes ;  her  ar 
mies  scattered,  her  States  subjugated,  and  her  people  compelled  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  a  war  which  they  have  wickedly  commenced  and  obsti 
nately  continued.  *  *  *  Fearless  and  invincible,  a  race  of  warriors 
rivaling  any  that  ever  followed  the  standard  of  an  Alexander,  a  Ccesar, 
or  a  Napoleon,  the  southerners  have  the  power  and  the  will  to  carry  this 
war  into  the  enemy's  country.  Let,  then,  the  lightnings  of  a  nation's 
wrath  scathe  our  foul  oppressors !  Let  the  thunder-bolts  of  war  be 
hurled  back  upon  our  dastardly  invaders,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa 
cific,  until  the  recognition  of  southern  independence  shall  be  extorted 
from  the  reluctant  North,  and  terms  of  peace  be  dictated  by  a  victo 
rious  southern  army  at  New  York  or  Chicago." 

General  Jeff.  Thompson,  a  literary  Missouri  "bush 
whacker,  was  termed  the  "Swamp  Fox"  and  the  "Marion 
of  the  Southern  Revolution."  I  found  one  of  his  effu 
sions,  entitled  "Home  Again,"  in  that  once  decorous 
journal,  The  New  Orleans  Picayune.  Its  transition  from 
the  pathetic  to  the  profane  is  a  curious  anticlimax. 

"  My  dear  wife  waits  my  coming, 

My  children  lisp  my  name, 
And  kind  friends  bid  me  welcome 

To  my  own  home  again. 
My  father's  grave  lies  on  the  hill, 

My  boys  sleep  in  the  vale ; 
I  love  each  rock  and  murmuring  rill, 

Each  mountain,  hill,  and  dale. 


224  INMATES  OF  THE  UNION  HOSPITALS.  [1862. 

I'll  suffer  hardships,  toil,  and  pain, 

For  the  good  time  sure  to  come ; 
I'll  battle  long  that  I  may  gain 

My  freedom  and  my  home. 
I  will  return,  though  foes  may  stand 

Disputing  every  rod ; 
My  own  dear  home,  my  native  land, 

I'll  win  you  yet,  by !" 

Our  hospitals  at  Mound  City,  Illinois,  contained  four 
teen  hundred  inmates.  A  walk  along  the  double  rows 
of  cots  in  the  long  wards  revealed  the  sadder  phase 
of  war.  Here  was  a  typhoid-fever  patient,  motionless 
and  unconscious,  the  light  forever  gone  out  from  his 
glazed  eyes ;  here  a  lad,  pale  and  attenuated,  who,  with 
a  shattered  leg,  had  lain  upon  this  weary  couch  for 
four  months.  There  was  a  Tennessean,  who,  abandon 
ing  his  family,  came  stealthily  hundreds  of  miles  to 
enlist  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  with  perfect  faith  in 
their  triumph,  and  had  lost  a  leg  at  Donelson ;  an  Illi- 
noisan,  from  the  same  battle,  with  a  ghastly  aperture  in 
the  face,  still  blackened  with  powder  from  his  enemy's 
rifle ;  a  young  officer  in  neat  dressing-gown,  furnished 
by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  sitting  up 
reading  a  newspaper,  but  with  the  sleeve  of  his  left 
arm  limp  and  empty ;  marines  terribly  scalded  by  the 
bursting  boiler  of  the  Essex  at  Fort  Henry,  some  of  whose 
whole  bodies  were  one  continuous  scar.  Sick,  wounded, 
and  convalescent  were  alike  cheerful ;  and  twenty-five 
Sisters  of  Mercy,  worthy  of  their  name,  moved  noise 
lessly  among  them,  ministering  to  their  wants. 


X362.]  STARTING  DOWN  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  225 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

"Now  would  I  give  a  thousand  furlongs  of  sea  for  an  acre  of  barren  ground.    The    wills 
above  be  done!  but  I  would  fain  die  a  dry  death. — TEMPEST. 

If  it  should  thunder  as  it  did  before,  I  know  not  where  to  lay  my  head. — Inm. 

ON  the  14th  of  March,  the  flotilla  again  started  down 
the  Mississippi,  steaming  slowly  by  Columbus,  where 
Venus  followed  close  upon  Mars,  in  the  form  of  two  wo 
men  disbursing  pies  and  some  other  commodities  to 
sailors  and  soldiers.  The  next  day  we  anchored  above 
Island  Number  Ten,  where  Beauregard  had  built  formi 
dable  fortifications. 

A  fast  little  Kebel  gunboat,  called  the  Grampus,  ran 
screeching  away  from  the  range  of  our  guns.  Below  her 
we  could  read  with  glasses  the  names  painted  upon  the 
many  steamers  lying  in  front  of  the  enemy' s  works,  and 
see  the  guns  upon  a  great  floating  battery. 

Our  gunboats  fired  one  or  two  experimental  shots, 
and  the  mortar-rafts,  with  tremendous  explosions,  began 
to  throw  their  ten-inch  shells,  weighing  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  each.  Great  results  were  expected  from 
these  enormous  mortars,  but  they  proved  inaccurate. 
Our  shots  fell  among  the  batteries  and  steamboats  of  the 
enemy,  throwing  up  clouds  of  dirt  and  sheets  of  water.' 
The  Eebel  guns  replied  with  great  puffs  of  smoke  ;  but 
their  missiles,  bounding  along  the  river,  fell  three-quar 
ters  of  a  mile  short. 

Light  skirmishing  in  closer  range  continued  for  seve 
ral  days.  My  own  quarters  were  on  the  Benton,  Com 
modore  Foote'  s  flagship.  She  was  the  largest  of  the  iron- 
is 


226         BOMBARDMENT  OF  ISLAND  NUMBER  TEN.        [1862. 

clads,  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  feet  Iby  seventy,  and 
contained  quite  a  little  community  of  two  hundred  and 
forty  men. 

Standing  upon  the  hurricane  roof,  directly  over  our 
bow-guns,  we  caught  the  first  glimpse  of  each  shot,  a  few 
feet  from  the  muzzle,  and  watched  it  rushing  through  the 
air  like  a  round,  black  meteor,  till  it  exploded  two  or 
three  miles  away.  After  we  saw  the  warning  puff  of 
smoke,  the  time  seemed  very  long  before  each  Rebel  shot 
struck  the  water  near  us  ;  but  no  more  than  ten  or  fifteen 
seconds  ever  elapsed. 

When  ready  to  attack  the  batteries,  Commodore  Foote 
said  to  me : 

"  You  had  better  take  your  place  with  the  other  cor 
respondents,  upon  a  transport  in  the  rear,  out  of  range. 
Should  any  accident  befall  you  here,  censure  would  be 
cast  upon  me  for  permitting  you  to  stay." 

Haunted  by  a  resistless  curiosity  to  learn  exactly  how 
one  feels  under  fire,  I  persuaded  him  to  let  me  remain. 

Two  other  iron-clads,  the  St.  Louis  and  the  Cincinnati, 
were  lashed  upon  either  side  of  the  Benton.  Hammocks 
were  taken  down  and  piled  in  front  of  the  boilers  to  pro 
tect  them ;  the  hose  was  attached  to  reservoirs  of  hot 
water,  designed  for  boarders  in  close  conflict ;  surgeons 
scrutinized  the  edges  of  their  instruments,  while  our 
triple  floating  battery  moved  slowly  down,  with  the  other 
iron-clads  a  short  distance  in  the  rear.  We  opened  fire, 
and  the  balls  of  the  enemy  soon  replied,  now  and  then 
striking  our  boats. 

A  deafening  noise  from  the  St.  Louis  shook  every 
plank  beneath  our  feet.  A  moment  after,  a  dozen  men 
rushed  upon  her  deck,  their  faces  so  blackened  by 
powder  that  they  would  have  been  taken  for  negroes. 
Two  were  carrying  the  lifeless  form  of  a  third  ;  several 


1862.]  "HERE  COMES  ANOTHER  SHOT."  227 

others  were  wounded.  Through  the  din  of  the  cannon 
ade,  one  of  her  crew  shouted  to  us  from  a  port-hole  that 
an  old  forty-two  pounder  had  exploded,  killing  and  mu 
tilating  several  men. 

We  obtained  the  best  view  from  the  hurricane  deck 
of  the  Benton,  where  there  could  be  no  special  dan-/ 
ger  from  splinters.  While  we  stood  there,  one  of  the 
party  was  constantly  on  the  look-out,  and,  seeing  a  puff 
of  smoke  curl  up  from  the  Rebel  battery,  he  would 
shout : 

"  Here  comes  another !" 

Then  we  all  dropped  upon  our  faces  behind  the  iron- 
plated  pilot-house,  which  rose  from  the  deck  like  a  great 
umbrella.  The  screaming  shot  would  sometimes  strike 
our  bows,  but  usually  pass  over,  falling  into  the  water 
behind  us. 

While  the  Rebels  fired  from  one  battery,  there  was 
just  sufficient  excitement  to  make  it  interesting ;  but 
when  they  opened  with  two  others,  stationed  at  different 
points  in  the  bend  of  the  river,  their  range  completely 
covered  the  pilot-house.  Dropping  behind  that  shelter 
to  avoid  the  missiles  in  front,  we  were  exposed  to  a  hail 
of  shot  from  the  side.  Thereupon  the  commodore  per 
emptorily  ordered  us  below,  and  we  went  down  upon 
the  gun-deck. 

A  correspondent  of  The  Chicago  Times,  who  chanced 
to  be  on  board,  took  a  position  in  the  stern  of  the  boat, 
under  the  impression  that  it  was  entirely  safe.  A  mo 
ment  after  he  came  rushing  in  with  blanched  face  and  drip 
ping  clothing.  A  shot  had  struck  within  three  feet  of 
him,  glancing  into  the  river,  and  drenching  every  thing 
in  the  vicinity. 

That  long  gun-deck  was  alive  with  action.  The  ex 
ecutive  officer,  Lieutenant  Bishop,  a  gallant  young  fel- 


228  How  ONE  FEELS  UNDER  FIRE.  [1862. 

low,  fresh  from  the  naval  school,  superintended  every 
thing.  Swarthy  gunners  manned  the  pieces  ;  little  pow 
der-boys  rushed  to  and  fro  with  ammunition,  and  hur 
rying  men  crowded  the  long  compartment. 

There  came  a  tremendous  crashing  of  glass,  iron,  and 
wood  1  An  eight-inch  solid  shot,  penetrating  the  half-inch 
iron  plating  and  the  five-inch  timber,  near  the  bows,  as 
if  they  were  paper,  buried  itself  in  the  deck,  and  re 
bounded,  striking  the  roof.  In  that  manner  it  danced 
along  the  entire  length  of  the  boat,  through  the  cabin,  the 
ward-room,  the  machinery,  the  pantry — where  it  smashed 
a  great  deal  of  crockery — until,  at  the  extreme  stern,  it 
fell  and  remained  upon  the  commodore's  writing-desk, 
crushing  in  the  lid. 

A  moment  before  the  noisy,  agile  visitor  arrived,  the 
whole  deck  seemed  crowded  with  busy  men.  A  moment 
after,  I  looked  again.  A  score  of  undismayed  fellows 
were  comfortably  blowing  splinters  from  their  mouths 
and  beards,  and  brushing  them  from  their  hair  and  faces  ; 
but,  by  a  fortunate  accident,  not  a  single  one  of  them  was 
hurt. 

As  the  shot  screamed  along  very  near  me,  my  curi 
osity  diminished.  I  had  a  dim  perception  that  nothing 
in  this  gunboat  life  could  become  me  like  the  leaving  of 
it.  A  mulatto  cabin-boy,  whose  face  turned  almost 
white  when  the  missile  tore  through  the  boat,  shared  my 
sensations. 

"  I  wish  that  I  was  out  of  it,"  he  said,  confidentially  ; 
"  but  I  put  my  own  neck  into  this  yoke,  and  I  have  got 
to  wear  it." 

Toward  evening,  some  of  the  enemy's  batteries  were 
silent,  and  we  idlers  once  more  sought  the  hurricane 
deck,  dodging  behind  the  pilot-house  whenever  ,  the 
smoke  puffed  from  the  hostile  guns.  Once,  some  one 


1862.]  FIFTY  SHOTS  TO  THE  MINUTE.  229 

cried,  "There  she  comes!"  and  we  dropped  as  usual. 
Looking  up,  I  noticed  a  second  engineer  standing  beside 
me. 

"  Lie  down,  Blakely  !"  I  said,  sharply. 

He  replied  laughingly,  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets : 

"0  no,  there  is  no  need  of  it;  one  is  just  as  safe 
here." 

While  he  spoke,  the  Eelbel  shot  passed  within  fifteen 
inches  of  his  bloodless  face,  shaved  a  sheet-iron  venti 
lator,  tore  through  the  chimney,  severed  a  large  wrought- 
iron  rod,  struck  the  deck,  plowed  through  a  half-inch 
iron  plate,  neatly  cutting  it  in  two,  passed  under  the  next 
plate,  and  then  came  out  again,  with  its  force  spent,  and 
rolled  languidly  against  a  sky-light.  When  he  felt  the  rush 
of  air,  Blakely  bent  back  almost  double,  and  thereafter  he 
was  among  the  first  to  seek  the  shelter  of  the  pilot-house. 

From  the  mortars  and  the  guns  on  both  sides,  there 
were  sometimes  fifty  shots  to  the  minute.  The  jarrings 
and  explosions  induced  head-ache  for  hours  afterward. 
The  results  of  the  day's  bombardment  were  not  very  san 
guinary.  Our  iron-clads  were  struck  scores  of  times,  but 
few  men  were  injured.  This  desultory  fighting  was 
kept  up  for  two  or  three  weeks. 

Meanwhile,  General  Pope,  moving  across  the  country 
from  Cairo  with  great  enterprise  and  activity,  had  de 
feated  the  Rebels  and  captured  their  forts  at  New  Mad 
rid,  on  the  Missouri  shore  of  the  Mississippi,  eight  miles 
below  Island  Number  Ten.  He  thus  held  the  river  in 
the  rear  of  the  enemy,  preventing  steamboats  from  as 
cending  to  them  ;  but  he  had  not  even  a  skiff  or  a  raft 
in  which  he  could  cross  to  the  Tennessee  bank,  and 
reach  the  rear  of  the  fortifications.  How  to  supply  him 
with  boats  was  the  great  problem. 

Pope  was  anxious  that  the  commodore  should  send 


230  DAILY  LIFE  ON  A  GUNBOAT.  [1862. 

one  of  the  iron-clads  to  Mm,  past  the  Rebel  fortifications. 
Foote  hesitated,  as  running  batteries  was  then  an  untried 
experiment. 

Pope  had  an  active,  hard-working  Illinois  engineer 
regiment,  which  began  cutting  a  canal,  to  open  commu 
nication  between  the  flotilla  and  New  Madrid  ;  and  we 
waited  for  results. 

I  found  life  on  the  Benton  full  of  novelty.  More  than 
half  of  her  crew  were  old  salts,  and  the  discipline  was  the 
same  as  on  a  man-of-war.  Half-hour  bells  marked  the 
passage  of  time.  Every  morning  the  deck  was  holy 
stoned  to  its  utmost  possibilities  of  whiteness.  Through 
each  day  we  heard  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  boatswain, 
amid  hoarse  calls  of  "All  hands  to  quarters,7'  "  Stand  by 
the  hammocks !"  etc. 

Even  the  negro  servants  caught  the  naval  expressions. 
One  of  them,  playing  on  the  guitar  and  singing,  broke 
down  from  too  high  a  pitch. 

"  Too  much  elevation  there, "  said  he.  "I  must  de 
press  a  little." 

"Yes,"  replied  another.  "Start  again  on  the  gun- 
deck." 

Exchanging  shots  with  the  enemy  grew  monotonous. 
Beading,  writing,  or  playing  chess  in  the  ward-room, 
we  carelessly  noted  the  reports  from  the  Rebel  batteries, 
and  some  officer  from  the  deck  walked  in,  saying  : 

"There's  another!" 

"Where  did  it  strike?"  asked  some  one,  quite  care 
lessly. 

"  Near  us,"  or  "  Just  over  us  in  the  woods,"  would 
be  the  reply ;  and  the  idlers  returned  to  their  employ 
ments. 

My  own  state-room'  was  within  six  feet  of  a  thirty- 
two  pounder,  which  fired  every  fifteen  minutes  during 


1862.]        THE  CARONDELET  RUNS  THE  BATTERIES.         231 

the  day.  The  explosions  in  no  wise  disturbed  my  after 
noon  naps. 

On  Sunday  mornings,  after  the  weekly  muster,  the 
men  in  clean  blue  shirts  and  tidy  clothing,  and  the  offi 
cers,  in  full  uniform,  with  all  their  bravery  of  blue  and 
gold,  assembled  on  the  gun-deck  for  religious  service. 
Hat  in  hand,  they  stood  in  a  half  circle  around  the  com 
modore,  who,  behind  a  high  stool,  upon  which  the  Na 
tional  flag  was  spread,  read  the  comprehensive  prayer 
for  "  All  who  are  afflicted  in  mind,  body,  or  estate,"  or 
acknowledged  that  "  We  have  done  the  things  which  we 
ought  not  to  have  done,  and  left  undone  the  things  which 
we  ought  to  have  done." 

Among  the  groups  of  worshipers  were  seen  the  ga 
ping  mouths  of  the  black  guns,  and  the  pyramidal  piles 
of  grape  and  canister  ready  for  use.  During  prayer,  the 
boat  was  often  shaken  by  the  discharge  of  a  mortar, 
which  made  the  neighboring  woods  resound  with  its 
long,  rolling  echoes.  The  commodore  extemporized  a 
brief,  simple  address  on  Christian  life  and  duty;  then 
the  men  were  "  piped  down"  and  dispersed. 

On  a  dark  April  night,  during  a  terrific  thunder- 
shower,  the  iron-clad  Carondelet  started  to  run  the 
gantlet.  The  undertaking  was  deemed  hazardous  in  the 
extreme.  The  commodore  gave  to  her  commander  writ 
ten  instructions  how  to  destroy  her,  should  she  become 
disabled ;  and  solemnly  commended  him  to  the  mercy 
and  protection  of  Almighty  God. 

The  Carondelet  crept  noiselessly  down  through  the 
darkness.  When  the  Rebels  discovered  her,  they  opened 
with  shot,  shell,  and  bullets.  All  her  ports  were  closed, 
and  she  did  not  fire  a  gun.  It  was  too  dark  to  guide  her 
by  the  insufficient  glimpses  of  the  shore  obtained  from  the 
little  peep-holes  of  her  pilot-house.  Mr.  D.  R.  Hoell,  an 


232         WONDERFUL  FEAT  OF  POPE'S  ENGINEERS.       [1862. 

old  river  pilot,  volunteered  to  remain  unprotected  on  the 
open  upper  deck,  among  the  rattling  shots  and  the  sing 
ing  bullets,  to  give  information  to  his  partners  within. 
His  daring  was  promptly  rewarded  by  an  appointment  as 
lieutenant  in  the  navy. 

Upon  the  flag- ship  above  intense  anxiety  prevailed. 
After  an  hour,  which  seemed  a  day,  from  far  down  the 
river  boomed  two  heavy  reports  ;  then  there  was  silence, 
then  two  shots  again.  All  gave  a  sigh  of  relief.  This 
was  the  signal  that  the  Carondelet  had  lived  through  the 
terrible  ordeal ! 

The  Rebels  had  made  themselves  very  merry  over 
Pope's  canal.  But,  at  daylight  on  the  second  morning 
after  this  feat  of  the  iron-clad,  they  saw  four  little  stem- 
wheel  steamboats  lying  in  front  of  Pope's  camps.  The 
canal  was  a  success  !  In  two  weeks  the  indefatigable  en 
gineers  had  brought  these  steamers  from  Foote'  s  flotilla, 
sixteen  miles,  through  corn-fields,  woods,  and  swamps, 
cutting  channels  from  one  bayou  to  another,  and  felling 
heavy  timber  all  the  way.  They  were  compelled  to  saw 
off  hundreds  of  huge  trees,  three  feet  below  the  water' s 
edge.  It  was  one  of  the  most  creditable  feats  of  the 
war. 

"Let  all  the  world  take  notice,"  said  a  Confederate  newspaper, 
"  that  the  southern  troops  are  gentlemen,  and  must  be  subjected  to  no 
drudgery." 

The  loyal  troops,  like  these  Illinois  engineers,  were 
men  of  skilled  industry,  proud  to  know  themselves 
"kings  of  two  hands." 

The  Confederates  felt  that  Birnam  wood  had  come  to 
Dunsinane.  Declaring  that  it  was  useless  to  fight  men 
who  would  deliberately  float  gunboats  by  the  very 
muzzles  of  their  heavy  guns,  and  could  run  steamers  six- 


1862.]  THE  REBELS  EFFECTIVELY  CAGED.  233 

teen  miles  over  dry  land,  they  began  to  evacuate  Island 
Number  Ten.  But  Pope  had  already  ferried  the  greater 
part  of  his  army  across  the  river,  and  he  replied  to  my 
inquiries : 

"  I  will  have  every  mother's  son  of  them  !" 

He  kept  his  promise.  The  Rebels  were  caged.  They 
fled  in  haste  across  the  country  to  Tiptonville,  where 
they  supposed  their  steamboats  awaited  them.  Instead, 
they  found  two  of  our  iron-clads  lying  in  front  of  the 
town,  and  learned  that  Pope  held  the  river  even  ten 
miles  below.  The  trap  was  complete.  On  their  front 
was  Tiptonville,  with  the  cavernous  eyes  of  the  Ca- 
rondelet  and  the  Pittsburgh  ominously  scrutinizing  them. 
At  their  left  was  an  impassable  line  of  lake  and  slough ; 
at  their  right  a  dry  region,  bounded  by  the  river,  and 
held  by  our  troops  ;  in  their  rear,  Pope' s  army  was  hotly 
pursuing  them.  Some  leaped  into  the  lake  or  plunged 
into  the  swamps,  trying  to  escape.  Three  times  the  Re 
bel  forces  drew  up  in  line  of  battle ;  but  they  were  too 
much  demoralized  to  fight,  and,  after  a  weary  night,  they 
surrendered  unconditionally. 

At  sunrise,  long  files  of  stained,  bedraggled  soldiers,  in 
butternut  and  jeans,  began  to  move  sadly  into  a  great 
corn-field,  and  stack  their  arms.  The  prisoners  numbered 
twenty-eight  hundred.  We  captured  upward  of  a  hun 
dred  heavy  guns,  twenty-five  field-pieces,  half  a  dozen 
steamboats,  and  immense  supplies  of  provisions  and  am 
munition.  The  victory  was  won  with  trifling  loss  of 
life,  and  reflected  the  highest  credit  both  upon  the  land 
and  water  forces.  The  army  and  the  navy,  fitting  to 
gether  like  the  two  blades  of  the  scissors,  had  cut  the 
gordian  knot. 

Pope  telegraphed  to  Halleck  that,  if  steamboats 
could  be  furnished  him,  in  four  days  he  would  plant  the 


234  THE  NORTHERN  FLOOD  ROLLING  ON.  [1862. 

Stars  and  Stripes  in  Memphis.  Halleck,  as  usual,  en 
grossed  in  strategy,  declined  to  supply  the  transporta 
tion. 

But  the  great  northern  flood  rolled  on  toward  the 
Gulf,  and  in  its  resistless  torrent  was  no  refluent  wave. 


1862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH.  235 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Of  sallies  and  retires;  of  trenches,  tents, 
Of  palisadoes,  frontiers,  parapets ; 
Of  basilisks,  of  cannon,  culverin; 
And  all  the  currents  of  a  heady  fight. 

KINO  HKNBT  IV. 

SIMULTANEOUSLY  with  the  capture  of  Island  Num 
ber  Ten  occurred  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  The  first  reports 
were  very  wild,  stating  our  loss  at  seventeen  thousand, 
and  asserting  that  the  Union  commander  had  been  disas 
trously  surprised,  and  hundreds  of  men  bayoneted  in 
their  tents.  It  was  even  added  that  Grant  was  intox 
icated  during  the  action.  This  last  fiction  showed  the 
tenacity  of  a  bad  name.  Years  before,  Grant  was  intem 
perate  ;  but  he  had  abandoned  the  habit  soon  after  the 
beginning  of  the  war. 

General  Albert,  Sydney  Johnson  was  killed,  and 
Beauregard  ultimately  driven  back,  leaving  his  dead 
and  wounded  in  our  hands ;  but  Jefferson  Davis,  with 
the  usual  Rebel  policy,  announced  in  a  special  message 
to  the  Confederate  Congress : 

"  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  again  to  crown  the  Confederate  arms 
with  a  glorious-  and  decided  victory  over  our  invaders." 

I  went  up  the  Tennessee  River  by  a  boat  crowded 
with  representatives  —  chiefly  women  —  of  the  Sanitary 
Commissions  of  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  and  Chicago. 

One    evening,  religious    services  were  held  in  the 


236  THE  REVEREND  EGBERT  COLYER.  [isez. 

cabin.  A  clergyman  exhorted  his  hearers,  when  they 
should  arrive  at  the  bloody  field,  to  minister  to  the  spir 
itual  as  well  as  physical  wants  of  the  sufferers.  With 
special  infelicity,  he  added : 

"Many  of  them  have  doubtless  been  wicked  men; 
but  you  can,  at  least,  remind  them  of  divine  mercy,  and 
tell  them  the  story  of  the  thief  on  the  cross." 

The  next  speaker,  a  quiet  gentleman,  wearing  the 
blouse  of  a  private  soldier,  after  some  remarks  about 
practical  religion,  added: 

"  I  can  not  agree  with  the  last  brother.  I  believe  we 
shall  best  serve  the  souls  of  our  wounded  soldiers  by 
ministering,  for  the  present,  simply  to  their  bodies.  For 
my  own  part,  I  feel  that  he  who  has  fallen  fighting  for 
our  country — for  your  Cause  and  mine — is  more  of  a 
man  than  I  am.  He  may  have  been  wicked ;  but  I 
think  room  will  be  found  for  him  among  the  many  man 
sions  above.  I  should  be  ashamed  to  tell  him  the  story 
of  the  thief  on  the  cross." 

Hearty,  spontaneous  clapping  of  hands  through  the 
crowded  cabin  followed  this  sentiment — a  rather  unu 
sual  demonstration  for  a  prayer-meeting.  The  speaker 
was  the  Rev.  Robert  Colyer,  of  Chicago. 

With  officers  who  had  participated  in  the  battle,  I 
visited  every  part  of  the  field.  The  ground  was  broken 
by  sharp  hills,  deep  ravines,  and  dense  timber,  which 
the  eye  could  not  penetrate. 

The  reports  of  a  surprise  were  substantially  untrue. 
No  man  was  bayoneted  in  his  tent,  or  anywhere  else, 
according  to  the  best  evidence  I  could  obtain. 

But  the  statements,  said  to  come  from  Grant  and 
Sherman,  that  they  could  not  have  been  better  prepared, 
had  they  known  that  Beauregard  designed  to  attack, 
were  also  untrue.  Our  troops  were  not  encamped  ad- 


1862.]  A  UNION  ORATOR  CAPTURED.  237 

Vantageously  for  battle.  Raw  and  unarmed  regiments 
were  on  the  extreme  front,  which  was  not  picketed  or 
scouted  as  it  should  have  been  in  the  face  of  an  enemy. 

Beauregard  attacked  on  Sunday  morning  at  daylight. 
The  Rebels  greatly  outnumbered  the  Unionists,  and  im 
petuously  forced  them  back.  Grant' s  army  was  entirely 
western.  It  contained  representatives  of  nearly  every 
county  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin. 

Partially  unprepared,  and  steadily  driven  back,  often 
ill  commanded  and  their  organizations  broken,  the  men 
fought  with  wonderful  tenacity.  It  was  almost  a  hand- 
to-hand  conflict.  Confederates  and  Loyalists,  from  be 
hind  trees,  within  thirty  feet  of  each  other,  kept  up  a 
hot  fire,  shouting  respectively,  "Bull  Run!"  and  "Don- 
elson!" 

Prentiss'  shattered  division,  in  that  dense  forest,  was 
flanked  before  its  commander  knew  that  the  supporting 
forces — McClernand  on  his  right  and  Hurlbut  on  his 
left — had  been  driven  back.  Messengers  sent  to  him  by 
those  commanders  were  killed.  During  a  lull  in  the 
firing,  Prentiss  was  lighting  his  cigar  from  the  pipe  of  a 
soldier  when  he  learned  that  the  enemy  was  on  both 
sides  of  him,  half  a  mile  in  his  rear.  With  the  remnant 
of  his  command  he  was  captured. 

Remaining  in  Rebel  hands  for  six  months,  he  was 
enabled  to  indulge  in  oratory  to  his  heart's  content. 
Southern  papers  announced,  with  intense  indignation, 
that  Prentiss — occupying,  with  his  officers,  an  entire 
train — called  out  by  the  bystanders,  was  permitted  to 
make  radical  Union  speeches  at  many  southern  railway 
stations.  Removed  from  prison  to  prison,  the  Illinois 
General  continued  to  harangue  the  people,  and  his  men 
to  sing  the  "  Star- Spangled  Banner,"  until  at  last  the 
Rebels  were  glad  to  exchange  them. 


238  GRANT  AND  SHERMAN  IN  BATTLE.  [1862. 

Throughout  the  battle,  Grant  rode  to  and  fro  on  the 
front,  smoking  his  inevitable  cigar,  with  his  usual  sto 
lidity  and  good  fortune.  Horses  and  men  were  killed  all 
around  him,  but  he  did  not  receive  a  scratch.  On  that 
wooded  field,  it  was  impossible  for  any  one  to  keep 
advised  of  the  progress  of  the  struggle.  Grant  gave  few 
orders,  merely  bidding  his  generals  do  the  best  they  could. 

Sherman  had  many  hair-breadth  '  scapes.  His  brid- 
dle-rein  was  cut  off  by  a  bullet  within  two  inches  of  his 
fingers.  As  he  was  leaning  forward  in  the  saddle,  a 
ball  whistled  through  the  top  and  back  of  his  hat.  His 
metallic  shoulder-strap  warded  off  another  bullet,  and  a 
third  passed  through  the  palm  of  his  hand.  Three 
horses  were  shot  under  him.  He  was  the  hero  of  the 
day.  All  awarded  to  him  the  highest  praise  for  skill  and 
gallantry.  He  was  promoted  to  a  major-generalship, 
dating  from  the  battle.  His  official  report  was  a  clear, 
vivid,  and  fascinating  description  of  the  conflict. 

Five  bullets  penetrated  the  clothing  of  an  officer  on 
McClernand's  staff,  but  did  not  break  the  skin.  A  ball 
knocked  out  two  front  teeth  of  a  private  in  the  Seven 
teenth  Illinois  Infantry,  but  did  him  no  further  injury. 
A  rifle-shot  passed  through  the  head  of  a  soldier  in  the 
First  Missouri  Artillery,  coming  out  just  above  the  ear, 
but  did  not  prove  fatal.  Dr.  Cornyn,  of  St.  Louis,  told 
me  that  he  extracted  a  ball  from  the  brain  of  one  soldier, 
who,  three  days  afterward,  was  on  duty,  with  the  bul 
let  in  his  pocket. 

More  than  a  year  afterward,  at  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg,  Captain  Richard  Cross,  of  the  Fifth  New 
Hampshire  Infantry,  noticed  one  of  his  men  whose  skull 
had  been  cut  open  by  the  fragment  of  a  shell,  with  a 
section  of  it  standing  upright,  leaving  the  brain  exposed. 
Cross  shut  the  piece  of  skull  down  like  the  lid  of  a  tea- 


1862.]  A  GALLANT  FEAT  BY  SWEENEY.  239 

pot,  tied  a  handkerchief  around  it,  and  sent  to  the  rear 
the  wounded  soldier,  who  ultimately  recovered.  The 
one  truth,  taught  by  field  experience  to  army  surgeons, 
was  that  few,  if  any,  wounds  are  invariably  fatal. 

At  Shiloh,  Brigadier-General  Thomas  W.  Sweeney, 
who  had  lost  one  arm  in  the  Mexican  War,  received 
a  Minie"  "bullet  in  his  remaining  arm,  and  another  shot 
in  his  foot,  while  his  horse  fell  riddled  with  seven 
"balls.  Almost  fainting  from  loss  of  "blood,  he  was 
lifted  upon  another  horse,  and  remained  on  the  field 
through  the  entire  day.  His  coolness  and  his  marvelous 
escapes  were  talked  of  before  many  camp-fires  through 
out  the  army. 

Once,  during  the  battle,  he  was  unable  to  determine 
whether  a  battery  whose  men  were  dressed  in  blue,  was 
Rebel  or  Union.  Sweeney,  leaving  his  command,  rode  at 
a  gentle  gallop  directly  toward  the  battery  until  within 
pistol-shot,  saw  that  it  was  manned  by  Confederates, 
turned  in  a  half  circle,  and  rode  back  again  at  the  same 
easy  pace.  Not  a  single  shot  was  fired  at  him,  so  much 
was  the  respect  of  the  Confederates  excited  by  this  dar 
ing  act.  I  afterward  met  one  of  them,  who  described 
with  great  vividness  the  impression  which  Sweeney's 
gallantry  made  upon  them. 

The  steady  determination  of  Grant' s  troops  during  that 
long  April  Sunday,  was  perhaps  unequaled  during  the 
war.  At  night  companies  were  commanded  by  sergeants, 
regiments  by  lieutenants,  and  brigades  by  majors.  In 
several  regiments,  one-half  the  men  were  killed  and 
wounded ;  and  in  some  entire  divisions  the  killed  and 
wounded  exceeded  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  the  numbers 
who  went  into  battle. 

I  have  seen  no  other  field  which  gave  indication 
of  such  deadly  conflict  as  the  Shiloh  ridges  and  ra- 


240  BUELL'S  OPPORTUNE  ARRIVAL.  [1862. 

vines,  everywhere  covered  with  a  very  thick  growth  of 
timber— 

"  Shot-sown  and  bladed  thick  with  steel." 

In  one  tree  I  counted  sixty  bullet-holes  ;  another 
bore  marks  of  more  than  ninety  balls  within  ten  feet  of 
the  ground.  Sometimes,  for  several  yards  in  the  dense 
ehubbery,  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  twig  as  large  as  one's 
finger,  which  had  not  been  cut  off  by  balls. 

A  friend  of  mine  counted  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  dead  Rebels,  lying  where  they  fell,  upon  an  area  less 
than  fifty  yards  wide  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long.  One 
of  our  details  buried  in  a  single  trench  one  hundred  and 
forty -seven  of  the  enemy,  including  three  lieutenant- 
colonels  and  four  majors. 

But  our  forces,  overpowered  by  numbers,  fell  farther 
and  further  back,  while  the  Rebels  took  possession  of 
many  Union  camps.  At  night,  our  line,  originally  three 
miles  in  length,  was  shortened  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile. 

For  weeks  the  inscrutable  Buell  had  been  leisurely 
marching  through  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  to  join 
Grant.  He  arrived  at  the  supreme  moment.  At  four 
o'clock  on  that  Sunday  afternoon,  General  Nelson,  of 
Kentucky,  who  commanded  Buell' s  advance,  crossed  the 
Tennessee,  and  rode  up  to  Grant  and  his  staff  when  the 
battle  was  raging. 

"Here  we  are,  General,"  said  Nelson,  with  the  mili 
tary  salute,  and  pointing  to  long  files  of  his  well-clad, 
athletic,  admirably  disciplined  fellows,  already  pouring 
on  the  steamboats,  to  be  ferried  across  the  river.  "  Here 
we  are !  We  are  not  very  military  in  our  division.  We 
don't  know  many  fine  points  or  nice  evolutions  ;  but  if 
you  want  stupidity  and  hard  fighting,  I  reckon  we  are 
the  men  for  you." 


1862.]  BEAUREGARD  FINALLY  ROUTED.  241 

That  night  both  armies  lay  upon  their  guns,  and  the 
opposing  pickets  were  often  within  a  hundred  yards  of 
each  other.  The  groans  and  cries  of  the  dying  rendered 
it  impossible  to  sleep.  Grant  said  : 

"We  must  not  give  the  enemy  the  moral  advantage 
of  attacking  to-morrow  morning.  We  must  fire  the  first 
gun." 

Just  at  day-break,  the  Rebels  were  surprised  at  all 
points  of  the  line  by  assaults  from  the  foe  whom  they  had 
supposed  vanquished.  Grant' s  shattered  troops  behaved 
admirably,  and  Buell's  splendid  army  won  new  laurels. 
The  Confederates  were  forced  back  at  all  points.  Their 
retreat  was  a  stampede,  leaving  behind  great  quantities  of 
ammunition,  commissary  stores,  guns,  caissons,  smallarms, 
supply-wagons  and  ambulances.  They  were  not  vigor 
ously  followed ;  but  as  no  effective  pursuit  was  made 
by  either  side  during  the  entire  war  (until  Sheridan,  in 
one  of  its  closing  scenes,  captured  Lee),  perhaps  north 
ern  and  southern  troops  were  too  equally  matched  for 
either  to  be  thoroughly  routed. 

Beauregard  withdrew  to  Corinth,  as  usual,  announc 
ing  a  glorious  victory.  He  addressed  a  letter  to  Grant, 
asking  permission,  under  flag  of  truce,  to  send  a  party  to 
the  battle-field  to  bury  the  Confederate  dead.  He  pre 
faced  the  request  as  follows  : 

"Sir,  at  the  close  of  the  conflict  of  yesterday,  my  forces  being 
exhausted  by  the  extraordinary  length  of  the  time  during  which  they 
were  engaged  with  yours  on  that  and  the  preceding  day,  and  it  being 
apparent  that  you  had  received  and  were  still  receiving  re-enforcements, 
I  felt  it  my  duty  to  withdraw  my  troops  from  the  immediate  scene  of 
the  conflict." 

Grant  was  strongly  tempted  to  assure  Beauregard 
that  no  apologies  for  his  retreat  were  necessary  !  But 

16 


242  THE  LOSSES  ON  BOTH  SIDES.  [1862. 

lie   merely  replied  in  a  courteous  note,  declining  the 
request,  and  stating  that  the  dead  were  already  interred. 
The  losses  on  "both  sides  were  officially  reported  as 
follows : 

Killed.  Wounded.  Missing.  Total 

Union 1,614  7,721  3,963  13,298 

Rebel 1,728  8,012  959  10,699 

The  excess  of  Rebel  wounded  was  owing  to  the  supe 
riority  of  the  muskets  used  by  the  Federal  soldiers  ;  and 
the  excess  of  Union  missing,  to  the  capture  of  Prentiss' 
division. 


• 


1862.]  GRANT  UNDER  A  CLOUD.  243 


CHAPTER    XX. 

How  use  doth  breed  a  habit  in  a  man. 

Two  GENTLEMEN  OF  VERONA. 

But  let  me  tell  the  world, 

If  he  outlive  the  envy  of  this  day, 
England  did  never  owe  so  sweet  a  hope 
80  much  misconstrued. 

HENRY  IY. 

IT  was  long  after  the  battle  of  Sliiloli  before  all  the 
dead  were  buried.  Many  were  interred  in  trenches,  scores 
together.  A  friend,  who  was  engaged  in  this  revolting 
labor,  told  me  that,  after  three  or  four  days,  he  found 
himself  counting  off  the  bodies  as  indifferently  as  he 
would  have  measured  cord- wood. 

General  Halleck  soon  arrived,  assuming  command  of 
the  combined  forces  of  Grant,  Buell,  and  Pope.  It  was 
a  grand  army. 

Grant  nominally  remained  at  the  head  of  his  corps,  but 
was  deprived  of  power.  He  was  under  a  cloud.  Most 
injurious  reports  concerning  his  conduct  at  Shiloh  per 
vaded  the  country.  All  the  leading  journals  were 
represented  in  Halleck' s  army.  At  the  daily  accidental 
gatherings  of  eight  or  ten  correspondents,  Grant  was  the 
subject  of  angry  discussion.  The  journalistic  profession 
tends  to  make  men  oracular  and  severely  critical. 

Several  of  these  writers  could  demonstrate  conclu 
sively  that  Grant  was  without  capacity,  but  a  favorite  of 
Fortune  ;  that  his  great  Donelson  victory  was  achieved  in 
spite  of  military  blunders  which  ought  to  have  defeated 
him. 

The  subject  of  all  this  contention  bore  himself  with 


244  HE  SERENELY  SMOKES  AND  WAITS. 

undisturbed  serenity.  Sherman,  while  constantly  de 
claring  that  he  cared  nothing  for  the  newspapers,  was 
foolishly  sensitive  to  every  word  of  criticism.  But 
Grant,  whom  they  really  wounded,  appeared  no  more 
disturbed  by  these  paper  bullets  of  the  brain  than  by 
the  leaden  missiles  of  the  enoray.  He  silently  smoked 
and  waited.  The  only  protest  I  ever  knew  him  to  utter 
was  to  the  correspondent  of  a  journal  which  had  de 
nounced  him  with  great  severity  : 

"Your  paper  is  very  unjust  to  me;  but  time  will 
make  it  all  right.  I  want  to  be  judged  only  by  my 
acts." 

When  the  army  began  to  creep  forward,  I  messed  at 
Grant' s  head-quarters,  with  his  chief  of  staff ;  and  around 
the  evening  camp-fires  I  saw  much  of  the  general.  He 
rarely  uttered  a  word  upon  the  political  bearings  of  the 
war ;  indeed,  he  said  little  upon  any  subject.  With  his 
eternal  cigar,  and  his  head  thrown  slightly  to  one  side, 
for  hours  he  would  sit  silently  before  the  fire,  or  walk 
back  and  forth,  with  eyes  upon  the  ground,  or  look  on 
at  our  whist-table,  now  and  then  making  a  suggestion 
about  the  play. 

Most  of  his  pictures  greatly  idealize  his  full,  rather 
heavy  face.  The  journalists  called  him  stupid.  One 
of  my  confreres  used  to  say  : 

"How  profoundly  surprised  Mrs.  Grant  must  have 
been,  when  she  woke  up  and  learned  that  her  husband 
was  a  great  man !" 

He  impressed  me  as  possessing  great  purity,  integrity, 
and  amiability,  with  excellent  judgment  and  boundless 
pluck.  But  I  should  never  have  suspected  him  of  mili 
tary  genius.  Indeed,  nearly  every  man  of  whom,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  I  prophesied  a  great  career,  proved 
inefficient,  and  vice  versa. 


1862.]  JEALOUSIES  OF  MILITARY  MEN.  245 

Military  men  seem  to  cherish  more  jealousies  than 
members  of  any  other  profession,  except  physicians  and 
artistes.  At  almost  every  general  head-quarters,  one 
heard  denunciations  of  rival  commanders.  Grant  was 
above  this  "  mischievous  foul  sin  of  chiding."  I 
never  heard  him  speak  unkindly  of  a  brother  officer. 
Still,  the  soldier' s  taint  had  slightly  poisoned  him.  He 
regarded  Rosecrans  with,  peculiar  antipathy,  and  finally 
accepted  the  command  of  our  combined  armies  only  on 
condition  that  he  should  be  at  once  removed. 

Hooker  once  boasted  that  he  had  the  best  army  on  the 
planet.  One  would  have  declared  that  Grant  com 
manded  the  worst.  There  was  little  of  that  order,  perfect 
drill,  or  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance,  seen  among 
Buell's  troops  and  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  But 
Grant' s  rough,  rugged  soldiers  would  iight  wonderfully, 
and  were  not  easily  demoralized.  If  their  line  became 
broken,  every  man,  from  behind  a  tree,  rock,  or  stump, 
blazed  away  at  the  enemy  on  his  own  account.  They 
did  not  throw  up  their  hats  at  sight  of  their  general,  but 
were  wont  to  remark,  with  a  grim  smile  : 

"  There  goes  the  old  man.  He  doesn't  say  much  ;  bat 
he's  a  pretty  hard  nut  for  Johnny  Reb.  to  crack." 

Unlike  Halleck,  Grant  did  not  pretend  to  familiarity 
with  the  details  of  military  text-books.  He  could  not 
move  an  army  with  that  beautiful  symmetry  which  Me- 
Clellan  displayed ;  but  his  pontoons  were  always  up, 
and  his  ammunition  trains  were  never  missing. 

Though  not  occupied  with  details,  he  must  have  given 
them  close  attention  ;  for,  while  other  commanding  gene 
rals  had  forty  or  fifty  staff-officers,  brilliant  with  braid 
and  buttons,  Grant  allowed  himself  but  six  or  seven. 

Within  ten  days  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  nineteen 
large  steamers,  crowded  with  wounded,  passed  down  the 


246  THE  UNION  AND  REBEL  WOUNDED.  [1802. 

river.  In  the  long  rows  of  cots  which  filled  their  cabins 
and  crowded  their  guards,  Rebel  and  Union  soldiers 
were  lying  side  by  side,  and  receiving  the  same  attend 
ance; 

Scores  of  volunteer  physicians  aided  the  regular  army 
surgeons.  Hundreds  of  volunteer  nurses,  many  of  them 
wives,  sisters,  and  mothers,  came  from  every  walk  of  life 
to  join  in  the  work  of  mercy.  Hands  hardened  with  toil, 
and  hands  that  leisure  and  luxury  left  white  and  soft, 
were  bathing  fevered  brows,  supporting  wearied  heads, 
washing  repulsive  wounds,  combing  matted  and  bloody 
locks. 

Patient  forms  kept  nightly  vigils  beside  the  couches  ; 
gentle  tones  dropped  priceless  words  of  sympathy ;  and, 
when  all  was  over,  tender  hands  closed  the  fixed  eyes, 
and  smoothed  the  hair  upon  the  white  foreheads.  Thou 
sands  of  poor  fellows  carried  to  their  homes,  both  North 
and  South,  grateful  memories  of  those  heroic  women ; 
thousands  of  hearts,  wrung  with  the  tidings  that  loved 
ones  were  gone,  found  comfort  in  the  knowledge  that 
their  last  hours  were  soothed  by  those  self-denying  and 
blessed  ministrations. 

One  man,  who  had  received  several  bullets,  lay  un 
discovered  for  eight  days  in  a  little  thicket,  with  no  nour 
ishment  except  rain-water.  After  discovery  he  lived 
nearly  two  weeks.  At  some  points  the  ground  was  so 
closely  covered  with,  mutilated  bodies  that  it  was  difficult 
to  step  between  them.  One  soldier,  rigid  in  death,  was 
found  lying  upon  the  back,  holding  in  his  fixed  hand, 
and  regarding  with  stony  eyes,  the  daguerreotype  of  a 
woman  and  child.  It  was  terribly  suggestive  of  the 
desolate  homes  and  bleeding  hearts  which  almost  force 
one  to  Cicero's  conclusion,  that  any  peace  is  better  than 
the  justest  war. 


i8G2.]       AN  INTERVIEW  WITH  GENERAL  SHERMAN.        247 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

They  are  the  abstract  and  brief  chronicles  of  the  time. 

HAMLET. 

GENERAL  SHERMAN"  was  very  violent  toward  the  Press. 
Some  newspapers  had  treated  him  unjustly  early  in  the 
war.  While  he  commanded  in  Kentucky,  his  eccentrici 
ties  were  very  remarkable,  and  a  journalist  started  the 
report  that  Sherman  was  crazy,  which  obtained  wide 
credence.  There  was,  at  least,  method  in  his  madness  ; 
for  his  supposed  insanity  which  declared  that  the 
Government  required  two  hundred  thousand  troops  in 
the  West,  though  hooted  at  the  time,  proved  wisdom 
and  prophecy. 

Nevertheless,  he  was  very  erratic.  When  I  first  saw 
him  in  Missouri,  during  Fremont's  administration,  his 
eye  had  a  half- wild  expression,  probably  the  result  of 
excessive  smoking.  From  morning  till  night  he  was 
never  without  his  cigar.  To  the  nervous- sanguine  tem 
perament,  indicated  by  his  blonde  hair,  light  eyes,  and 
fair  complexion,  tobacco  is  peculiarly  injurious. 

While  many  insisted  that  no  correspondent  could  meet 
Sherman  without  being  insulted,  I  sought  him  at  his 
tent  in  the  field ;  he  was  absent  with  a  scouting  party, 
but  soon  returned,  with  one  hand  bandaged  from  his 
Shiloh  wound.  A  staff-officer  introduced  me : 

"  General,  this  is  Mr. ." 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr. ?"  inquired  Sherman,  with 

great  suavity,  offering  me  his  uninjured  hand. 

"Correspondent  of  Tfie  New  York  Tribune,"  added 
the  lieutenant 


248  His  COMPLAINTS  ABOUT  THE  PRESS.  [1862. 

The  general's  manner  changed  from  Indian  summer 
to  a  Texas  norther,  and  he  asked,  in  freezing  tones : 

"  Have  you  not  come  to  the  wrong  place,  sir  ?" 

"I  think  not.  I  want  to  learn  some  facts  about  the 
late  battle  from  your  own  lips.  You  complain  that 
journalists  misrepresent  you.  How  can  they  avoid  it, 
when  you  refuse  to  give  them  proper  information  ?  Some 
officers  are  drunkards  and  charlatans ;  but  you  would 
think  it  unjust  if  we  condemned  all  on  that  account. 
Is  it  not  equally  absurd  to  anathematize  every  man  of  my 
profession  for  the  sins  of  a  few  unworthy  members?" 

"  Perhaps  it  is.  Sit  down.  Will  you  have  a  cigar  ? 
The  trouble  is,  that  you  of  the  Press  have  no  responsi 
bilities.  Some  worthless  fellow,  wielding  a  quill,  may 
send  falsehoods  about  me  to  thousands  of  people  who 
can  never  hear  them  refuted.  What  can  I  do  ?  His 
readers  do  not  know  that  he  is  without  character.  It 
would  be  useless  to  prosecute  him.  If  he  would  even 
fight  there  would  be  some  satisfaction  in  that ;  but  a 
slanderer  is  likely  to  be  a  coward  as  well." 

"True;  but  when  some  private  citizen  slanders  you 
on  the  street  or  in  a  drinking- saloon,  you  do  not  find  it 
necessary  to  pull  the  nose  of  every  civilian  whom  you 
meet.  Reputable  journalists  have  just  as  much  pride 
in  their  profession  as  }^ou  have  in  yours.  This  tendency 
to  treat  them  superciliously  and  harshly,  which  encou 
rages  flippant  young  staff-officers  to  insult  them,  tends 
to  drive  them  home  in  disgust,  and  leave  their  places  to 
be  supplied  by  a  less  worthy  class  ;  so  you  only  aggra 
vate  the  evil  you  complain  of." 

After  further  conversation  on  this  subject,  Sherman 
gave  me  a  very  entertaining  account  of  the  battle.  Since 
I  first  saw  him,  his  eye  had  grown  much  calmer,  and  his 
nervous  system  healthier.  He  is  tall,  of  bony  frame,  spare 


18G2.]  SHERMAN'S  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE.  249 

in  flesh,  with  thin,  wrinkled  face,  sandy  "beard  and  hair, 
and  bright,  restless  eyes.  His  face  indicates  great  vitality 
and  activity  ;  his  manner  is  restless  ;  his  discourse  rapid 
and  earnest.  He  looks  rather  like  an  anxious  man  of 
business  than  an  ideal  soldier,  suggesting  the  exchange, 
and  not  the  camp. 

He  has  great  capacity  for  labor — sometimes  working 
for  twenty  consecutive  hours.  He  sleeps  little,  nor  do 
the  most  powerful  opiates  relieve  his  terrible  cerebral 
excitement.  Indifferent  to  dress  and  to  fare,  he  can  live 
on  hard  bread  and  water,  and  fancies  any  one  else  can  do 
so.  Often  irritable,  and  sometimes  rude,  he  is  a  man  of 
great  originality  and  daring,  and  a  most  valuable  lieuten 
ant  for  a  general  of  coolness  and  judgment,  like  Grant  or 
Thomas.  With  one  of  them  to  plan  or  modify,  he  is 
emphatically  the  man  to  execute.  His  purity  and 
patriotism  are  beyond  all  question.  He  did  not  enter  the 
army  to  speculate  in  cotton,  or  to  secure  a  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  but  to  serve  the  country. 

Military  weaknesses  are  often  amusing.  A  prominent 
officer  on  Halleck'  s  staff,  who  had  served  with  Scott  in 
Mexico,  had  something  to  do  with  fortifying  Island  Num 
ber  Ten,  after  its  capture.  An  obscure  country  news 
paper  gave  another  officer  the  credit.  Seeking  the  agent 
of  the  Associated  Press  at  Halleck' s  head-quarters,  the 
aggrieved  engineer  remarked : 

"By  the  way,  Mr.  Weir,  I  have  been  carrying  a 
paper  in  my  pocket  for  several  days,  but  have  forgotten 
to  hand  it  to  you.  Here  it  is." 

And  he  produced  a  letter  page  of  denial,  upon  which 
the  ink  was  not  yet  dry,  stating  that  the  island  had  been 
fortified  under  the  immediate  direction  of  General  -  — , 
the  well-known  officer  of  the  regular  army,  who  served 
upon  the  staff  of  Lieutenant- General  Scott  during  the 


250  HUMORS  OF  THE  TELEGRAPH.  [1862. 

Mexican  war,  and  was  at  present  ,  -    — ,   and  - 

upon  the  staff  of  General  Halleck. 

"I  rely  upon  your  sense  of  justice,"  said  this  orna 
ment  of  the  staff,  "  to  give  this  proper  publicity." 

Mr.  Weir,  with  a  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  sent 
the  long  dispatch  word  for  word  to  the  Associated  Press, 
adding:  "You  may  rest  assured  that  this  is  perfectly 
reliable,  because  every  word  of  it  was  written  by  the  old 
fool  himself !"  All  the  newspaper  readers  in  the  country 
had  the  formal  dispatch,  and  all  the  telegraph  corps  had 
their  merriment  over  this  confidential  addendum. 

Halleck' s  command  contained  eighty  thousand  effect 
ive  men,  who  were  nearly  all  veterans.  His  line  was 
ten  miles  in  length,  with  Grant  on  the  right,  Buell  in  the 
center,  and  Pope  on  the  left. 

The  grand  army  was  like  a  huge  serpent,  with  its  head 
pinned  on  our  left,  and  its  tail  sweeping  slowly  around 
toward  Corinth.  Its  majestic  march  was  so  slow  that  the 
Rebels  had  ample  warning.  It  was  large  enough  to  eat 
up  Beauregard  at  one  mouthful ;  but  Halleck  crept  for 
ward  at  the  rate  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  per  day. 
Thousands  and  thousands  of  his  men  died  from  fevers  and 
diarrhoea. 

There  was  great  dissatisfaction  at  his  slow  prog 
ress.  Pope  was  particularly  impatient.  One  day  he 
had  a  very  sharp  skirmish  with  the  enemy.  Our  posi 
tion  was  strong.  General  Palmer,  who  commanded  on 
the  front,  reported  that  he  could  hold  it  against  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil ;  but  Halleck  telegraphed 
to  Pope  three  times  within  an  hour  not  to  be  drawn  into 
a  general  engagement.  After  the  last  dispatch,  Pope  re 
tired,  leaving  the  enemy  in  possession  of  the  field.  How 
he  did  storm  about  it ! 

The  little  army  which  Pope  had  brought  from  the 


1862.]          WEAKNESSES  OF  SUNDRY  GENERALS.  251 

capture  of  Island  Number  Ten  was  perfectly  drilled  and 
disciplined,  and  he  handled  it  with  rare  ability.  Much 
of  his  subsequent  unpopularity  arose  from  his  imprudent 
and  violent  language.  He  sometimes  indulged  in  the  most 
unseemly  profanity  and  billingsgate  within  hearing  of  a 
hundred  people. 

But  his  personal  weaknesses  were  pardonable  com 
pared  with  those  of  some  other  prominent  officers.  Du 
ring  Fremont's  Missouri  campaign,  I  knew  one  general 
who  afterward  enjoyed  a  well-earned  national  reputa 
tion  for  skill  and  gallantry.  His  head- quarters  were  the 
scenes  of  nightly  orgies,  where  whisky  punches  and 
draw-poker  reigned  from  dark  until  dawn.  In  the  morn 
ing  his  tent  was  a  strange  museum  of  bottles,  glasses, 
sugar-bowls,  playing-cards,  gold,  silver,  and  bank-notes. 
I  knew  another  western  officer,  who,  during  the  heat  of 
a  Missouri  battle,  according  to  the  newspaper  reports, 
inspirited  his  men  by  shouting : 

"Go  in,  boys!  Remember  Lyon  !  Remember  the 
old  flag  !" 

He  did  use  those  words,  but  no  enemy  was  within 
half  a  mile,  and  he  was  lying  drunk  on  the  ground,  flat 
upon  his  back.  Afterward,  repenting  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes,  he  did  the  State  some  service,  and  his  delinquency 
was  never  made  public. 

At  Antietam,  a  general,  well  known  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  was  reported  disabled  by  a  spent  shell, 
which  struck  him  in  the  breast.  The  next  morning,  he 
gave  me  a  minute  history  of  it,  assuring  me  that  he  still 
breathed  with  difficulty  and  suffered  greatly  from  internal 
soreness.  The  fact  was  that  he  was  disabled  by  a  bottle 
of  whisky,  having  been  too  hospitable  to  that  seductive 
friend  ! 

After  the  evacuation  of  Corinth,   Pope's  reputation 


252    "JOHN  POPE,  MAJOR-GENERAL  COMMANDING."      [is62. 

suffered  greatly  from  a  false  dispatch,  asserting  that  he 
had  captured  ten  thousand  prisoners.  Halleck  alone  was 
responsible  for  the  report.  Pope  was  in  the  rear.  One 
of  his  subordinates  on  the  front  telegraphed  him  sub 
stantially  as  follows : 

"The  woods  are  full  of  demoralized  and  flying  Rebels.  Some  of  my 
officers  estimate  their  number  as  high  as  ten  thousand.  Many  of  them 
have  already  come  into  my  lines." 

Pope  forwarded  this  message,  which  said  nothing 
about  taking  prisoners,  to  Halleck,  without  erasing  or 
adding  a  line ;  and  Halleck,  smarting  under  his  morti 
fying  failure  at  Corinth,  telegraphed  that  Pope  reported 
the  capture  of  ten  thousand  Rebels.  Pope' s  reputation 
for  veracity  was  fatally  wounded,  and  the  newspapers 
burlesqued  him  mercilessly. 

One  of  my  comrades  lay  sick  and  wounded  at  the 
residence  of  General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  of  St.  Louis.  On 
a  Sunday  afternoon  the  general  was  reading  to  him  from 
the  Bible  an  account  of  the  first  contraband.  This 
historic  precedent  was  the  servant  of  an  Amalekite,  who 
came  into  David's  camp  and  proposed,  if  assured  of 
freedom,  to  show  the  King  of  Israel  a  route  which 
would  enable  him  to  surprise  his  foes.  The  promise 
was  given,  and  the  king  fell  upon  the  enemy,  whom  he 
utterly  destroyed.  While  our  host  was  reading  the  list  of 
the  spoils,  the  prisoners,  slaves,  women,  flocks  and  herds 
captured  by  David,  the  sick  journalist  lifted  his  at 
tenuated  finger,  and  in  his  weak,  piping  voice,  said : 

"  Stop,  General;  just  look  down  to  the  bottom  of 
that  list,  and  see  if  it  is  not  signed  John  Pope,  Major- 
General  commanding !" 

At  last,  Halleck' s  army  reached  Corinth,  but  the  bird 


1862.]  HALLECK'S  FAUX  PAS  AT  CORINTH.  253 

liad  flown.  No  event  of  the  war  reflected  so  much 
credit  upon  the  Rebels  and  so  much  discredit  upon  the 
Unionists  as  Beau  regard's  evacuation.  He  did  not  dis 
turb  himself  until  Halleck's  Parrott  guns  had  thrown 
shots  within  fourteen  feet  of  his  own  head-quarters. 
Then,  keeping  up  a  vigorous  show  of  resistance  on  his 
front,  he  deserted  the  town,  leaving  behind  not  a  single 
gun,  or  ambulance,  or  even  a  sick  or  wounded  man  in 
the  hospital. 

Halleck  lost  thenceforth  the  name  of  "  Old  Brains," 
which  some  imaginative  person  had  given  him,  and 
which  tickled  for  a  time  the  ears  of  his  soldiers.  The 
only  good  thing  he  ever  did,  in  public,  was  to  make 
two  brief  speeches.  When  he  first  reached  St.  Louis, 
upon  being  called  out  by  the  people,  he  said  : 

"With  your  help,  I  will  drive  the  enemy  out  of 
Missouri." 

Called  upon  again,  on  leaving  St.  Louis  for  Washing 
ton,  to  assume  the  duties  of  general-in-chief,  he  made  an 
equally  brief  response  : 

"  Gentlemen :  I  promised  to  drive  the  enemy  out  of 
Missouri  ;  I  have  done  it !" 

HALLECK'S  ARMY,  BEFORE  CORINTH,  ) 
April  23,  1862.  j" 

Heavy  re-enforcements  are  arriving.  The  woods,  in 
luxuriant  foliage,  are  spiced  with 

" a  dream  of  forest  sweets, 


Of  odorous  blooms  and  sweet  contents," 

and  the  deserted  orchards  are  fragrant  with  apple  and 
cherry  blossoms. 

May  11. 

Still  we  creep  slowly  along.     Pope' s  head-quarters  are 


254  OUT  ON  THE  FRONT.  [1862. 

now  within  the  "borders  of  Mississippi.  Out  on  his 
front  you  find  several  hundred  acres  of  cotton-field  and 
sward,  ridged  with  graves  from  a  recent  hot  skirmish. 
Carcasses  of  a  hundred  horses,  killed  during  the  battle, 
are  slowly  burning  under  piles  of  rails,  covered  with  a 
layer  of  earth,  that  their  decay  may  not  taint  the 
atmosphere. 

Beyond,  our  infantry  pickets  present  muskets  and 
order  you  to  halt.  If  you  are  accompanied  by  a  field- 
officer,  or  bear  a  pass  "  by  order  of  Major-General  Hal- 
leek,"  you  can  cross  this  Rubicon.  A  third  of  a  mile 
farther  are  our  vedettes,  some  mounted,  others  lying  in 
the  shade  beside  their  grazing  horses,  but  keeping  a 
sharp  look-out  in  front.  In  a  little  rift  of  the  woods,  half 
a  mile  away,  you  see  through  your  field-glass  a  solitary 
horseman  clad  in  butternut.  Two  or  three  more,  and 
sometimes  forty  or  fifty,  come  out  of  the  woods  and  join 
him,  but  they  keep  very  near  their  cover,  and  soon  go 
back.  Those  are  the  enemy's  pickets.  You  hear  the 
drum  beat  in  the  Rebel  lines,  and  the  shrill  whistle  of  the 
locomotives  at  Corinth,  which  is  three  miles  distant. 

May  19. 

Along  our  entire  front,  almost  daily,  the  long  roll  is 
sounded,  and  the  ground  jarred  by  the  dull  rumble  of 
cannonade.  The  little  attention  paid  to  these  skirmishes, 
where  we  lose  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  men,  illustrates 
the  magnitude  of  the  war. 

We  feel  the  earth  vibrate,  and  look  inquiringly  into 
the  office  of  the  telegraph  which  accompanies  every 
corps. 

"It  is  on  Buell's  center,  or  on  Grant's  right,"  the 
operator  replies. 

If  it  does  not  become  rapid  and  prolonged,  no  further 


18G2.]         DRILLING,  DIGGING,  AND  SKIHMISHIKG.  255 

questions  are  asked.  At  night,  awakened  by  the  sharp 
rattle  of  musketry,  we  raise  our  heads,  listen  for  the 
alarm-drum,  and,  not  hearing  it,  roll  over  in  our  blan 
kets,  to  court  again  the  drowsy  god. 

Ride  out  with  me  to  the  front,  live  miles  from  Ilal- 
leck's  head-quarters.  The  country  is  undulating  and 
woody,  with  a  few  cotton-fields  and  planters'  houses. 
The  beautiful  groves  open  into  delicious  vistas  of  green 
grass  or  rolling  wheat ;  luxuriant  flowers  perfume  the 
vernal  air,  and  the  rich  foliage  already  seems  to  dis- 
play- 

— "The  tintings  and  the  fingerings  of  June, 


As  she  blossoms  into  beauty  and  sings  her  Summer  tune !" 

Here  is  a  deserted  camp  of  a  division  which  has 
moved  forward.  Three  or  four  adjacent  farmers  are 
gathering  up  the  barrels,  boxes,  provisions,  and  other 
debris,  left  behind  by  the  troops. 

Here  is  a  division  on  drill,  advancing  in  line  of  battle, 
the  skirmishers  thrown  out  in  front,  deploying,  gathering 
in  groups,  or  falling  on  their  faces  at  the  word  of  com 
mand. 

Beyond  those  white  tents  our  soldiers,  in  gray  shirts 
and  blue  pants,  are  busily  plying  the  spade.  They 
throw  up  a  long  rampart  notched  with  embrasures  for 
cannon.  We  have  already  built  fifty  miles  of  breast 
works. 

A  little  in  the  rear  are  the  heavy  siege-guns,  where 
they  can  be  brought  up  quickly ;  a  little  in  front,  the 
field  artillery,  with  the  horses  harnessed  and  tied  to  trees, 
ready  for  use  at  a  moment' s  notice.  Near  the  workmen, 
their  comrades,  who  do  the  more  legitimate  duty  of  the 
soldier,  are  standing  on  their  arms,  to  repel  any  sortie 
from  the  enemy.  Their  guns,  with  the  burnished  barrels 


256       EXPERIENCES  AMONG  THE  SHARP-SHOOTERS.       [1862 

and  "bayonets  glistening  in  the  sun,  are  stacked  in  long 
rows,  while  the  men  stand  in  little  groups,  or  sit  under 
the  trees,  playing  cards,  reading  letters  or  newspapers. 
More  than  twenty  thousand  copies  of  the  daily  papers  of 
the  western  cities  and  New  York  are  sold  in  the  army 
at  ten  cents  each.  The  number  of  letters  which  go 
out  from  the  camps  in  each  day's  mail  is  nearly  as 
large. 

When  this  parapet  is  completed,  we  shall  go  for 
ward  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  throw  up  another; 
and  thus  we  advance  slowly  toward  Corinth. 

Kide  still  farther,  and  you  find  the  infantry  pickets. 
The  vedettes  are  drawn  in,  if  there  is  any  skirmishing 
going  on.  From  the  extreme  front,  you  catch  an  occa 
sional  glimpse  of  the  Rebels — "Butternuts,"  as  they 
are  termed  in  camp,  from  their  cinnamon-hued  home 
spun,  dyed  with  "butternut  extract.  They  are  dodging 
among  the  trees,  and,  if  you  are  wise,  you  will  get 
behind  a  tree  yourself,  and  beware  how  you  show  your 
head. 

Already  one  of  their  sharp-shooters  notices  you.  Puff, 
comes  a  cloud  of  smoke  from  his  rifle ;  in  the  same 
breath  you  hear  the  explosion,  and  the  sharp,  ringing 
"ping"  of  the  bullet  through  the  air!  Capital  shots 
are  many  of  these  long,  lank,  loose-jointed  Mississippians 
and  Texans,  whose  rifles  are  sometimes  effective  at  ten 
and  twelve  hundred  yards.  Yesterday,  one  of  them 
concealed  himself  in  the  dense  foliage  of  a  tree-branch, 
and  picked  off  several  of  our  soldiers.  At  last,  one 
of  our  own  sharp-shooters  took  him  in  hand,  and,  at 
the  sixth  discharge,  brought  him  down  to  the  ground. 
This  sharp- shooting  is  a  needless  aggravation  of  the 
horrors  of  war  ;  but  if  the  enemy  indulges  in  it,  you  have 
no  recourse  but  to  do  likewise. 


1862.]  HORSES  STOLEN  EVERY  DAY.  257 

Stealing  is  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  camp  life 
— "  convey,  the  wise"  call  it.  I  have  a  steed,  cadaverous 
and  bony,  but  with  good  locomotive  powers.  There  was 
profound  policy  in  my  selection.  For  five  consecutive 
nights  that  horse  was  stolen,  but  no  thief  ever  kept  him 
after  seeing  him  by  day-light.  In  the  morning,  he  would 
always  come  browsing  back.  My  friend  and  tent-mate 
"  Carl  ton,"  of  The  Boston  Journal,  had  a  more  vaulting 
ambition.  He  procured  a  showy  horse,  which  proved 
the  most  expensive  luxury  in  all  his  varied  experience. 
The  special  aptitude  of  the  animal  was  to  be  stolen.  Reg 
ularly,  seven  mornings  in  the  week,  our  African  factotum 
would  thrust  his  woolly  head  into  the  tent,  and  awaken 
us  with  this  salutation : 

"Breakfast  is  ready.  Mr.  Coffyi,  your  horse  is  gone 
again." 

By  hard  search  and  liberal  rewards,  he  would  be  re 
claimed  during  the  day  from  some  cavalry  soldier,  who 
averred  that  he  had  found  him  running  loose.  After 
being  impaled  and  nearly  killed  upon  a  rake-handle,  the 
poor  brute,  hardly  able  to  walk  ten  paces,  was  stolen 
again,  and  never  re-appeared.  My  friend  now  remem 
bered  his  showy  steed,  and  the  last  five-dollar  note  which 
he  sent  in  fruitless  pursuit,  among  blessings  which  bright 
ened  as  they  took  their  flight. 

CAIRO,  ILL.,  May  21. 

General  Halleck  has  expelled  all  the  correspondents 
from  the  army,  on  the  plea  that  he  must  exclude  "  unau 
thorized  hangers-on,"  to  keep  spies  out  of  his  camps. 
His  refusal  to  accept  any  guaranties  of  their  loyalty  and 
prudence,  even  from  the  President  himself,  proves  that 
this  plea  was  a  shallow  subterfuge.  The  real  trouble  is, 
that  Halleck  is  not  willing  to  have  his  conduct  exhibited 

17 


258     HALLECK  EXPELS  THE  WAR  CORRESPONDENTS.      [1862. 

to  the  country  through  any  other  medium  than  official 
reports.  "  As  false  as  a  bulletin,"  has  passed  into  a  pro 
verb. 

The  journalists  received  invitations  to  remain,  from 
friends  holding  commissions  in  the  army,  from  major- 
generals  down  to  lieutenants  ;  but,  believing  their  pres 
ence  just  as  legitimate  and  needful  as  that  of  any  soldier 
or  officer,  they  determined  not  to  skulk  about  camps  like 
felons,  but  all  left  in  a  body.  Their  individual  griev 
ances  are  nothing  to  the  public  ;  but  this  is  a  grave  issue 
between  the  Military  Power  and  the  rights  of  the  Press 
and  the  People. 


18G2.]  BLOODTHIRSTINESS  OF  T~~~L  WOMEN. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 


Whose  tongue 


Outvenoms  all  the  worms  of  Nile. 

CnmLan. 

No  history  of  the  war  is  likely  to  do  full  justice  to  the 
"bitterness  of  the  Rebel  women.  Female  influence  tempted 
thousands  of  young  men  to  enter  the  Confederate  service 
against  their  own  wishes  and  sympathies.  Women  some 
times  evinced  incredible  rancor  and  bloodthirstiness. 
The  most  startling  illustration  of  the  brutalizing  effect  of 
Slavery  appeared  in  the  absence  of  that  sweetness,  charity, 
and  tenderness  toward  the  suffering,  which  is  the  crown 
ing  grace  of  womanhood. 

A  southern  Unionist,  the  owner  of  many  slaves,  said 
to  me: 

i  i  I  suppose  I  have  not  struck  any  of  my  negroes  for 
ten  years.  When  they  need  correcting,  my  wife  always 
does  it." 

If  he  had  a  horse  or  a  mule  requiring  occasional  whip 
ping,  would  he  put  the  scourge  in  the  hands  of  his  little 
daughter,  and  teach  her  to  wield  it,  from  her  tender  years  ? 
How  infinitely  more  must  it  brutalize  and  corrupt  her 
when  the  victim  is  a  man — the  most  sacred  thing  that 
God  has  made — his  earthly  image  and  his  human  temple  ! 

Before  we  captured  Memphis,  the  sick  and  wounded 
Union  prisoners  were  in  a  condition  of  great  want  and 
suffering.  Women  of  education,  wealth,  and  high  social 
position  visited  the  hospitals  to  minister  to  Rebel  patients. 


260  THE  BATTLE  OF  MEMPHIS. 

Frequently  entering  the  Federal  wards  from  curiosity, 
they  used  toward  the  groaning  patients  expressions  like 
this : 

"I  would  like  to  give  you  one  dose!  You  would 
never  fight  against  the  South  again  !" 

In  what  happy  contrast  to  this  shone  the  self-denying 
ministrations  of  northern  women,  to  friend  and  enemy 
alike ! 

In  Memphis,  on  the  evening  of  June  5th,  General 
Jeff.  Thompson,  commanding  the  Rebel  cavalry,  and 
Commodore  Edward  Montgomery,  commanding  the  Rebel 
flotilla,  stated  at  the  Gayoso  House  that  there  would 
be  a  battle  the  next  morning,  in  which  the  Yankee  fleet 
would  be  destroyed  in  just  about  two  hours. 

Just  after  daylight,  the  Rebel  flotilla  attacked  ours, 
two  miles  above  the  city.  We  had  five  iron-clads  and 
several  rams,  which  were  then  experimental.  They 
were  light,  agile  little  stern-wheel  boats,  whose  ma 
chinery  was  not  at  all  protected  against  shots.  The 
battle  occurred  in  full  view  of  the  city.  Though  it  began 
soon  after  daylight,  it  was  witnessed  by  ten  thousand 
people  upon  the  high  bluff— an  anxious,  excited  crowd. 
The  Rebels  dared  not  be  too  demonstrative,  and  the 
Unionists  dared  not  whisper  a  word  of  their  long-cher 
ished  and  earnest  hopes. 

While  the  two  fleets  were  steaming  toward  each  other, 
Colonel  Ellet,  determined  to  succeed  or  to  die,  daringly 
pushed  forward  with  his  little  rams,  the  Monarch  and 
Queen  of  the  West.  With  these  boats,  almost  as  fragile 
as  pasteboard,  he  steamed  directly  into  the  Rebel  flotilla. 
One  of  his  rams  struck  the  great  gunboat  Sterling  Price 
with  a  terrific  blow,  crushing  timbers  and  tearing  away 
the  entire  larboard  wheel-house.  The  Price  drifted 
helplessly  down  the  stream  and  stranded.  Another  of 


1862.]  GALLANT  EXPLOITS  OF  THE  RAMS.  261 

Ellet's  rams  ran  at  full  speed  into  the  General  Lovell, 
cutting  her  in  twain.  The  Rebel  boat  filled  and  sunk. 

From  the  shore,  it  was  a  most  impressive  sight. 
There  was  the  Lovell,  with  holiday  decorations,  crowded 
with  men  and  firing  her  guns,  when  the  little  ram  struck 
her,  crushing  in  her  side,  and  she  went  down  like  a  plum 
met.  In  three  minutes,  even  the  tops  of  her  tall  chim 
neys  disappeared  under  water.  Scores  of  swimming  and 
drowning  Rebels  in  the  river  were  rescued  by  boats 
from  the  Union  fleet. 

One  of  the  rams  now  ran  alongside  and  grappled  the 
Beauregard,  and,  through  hose,  drenched  her  decks  with 
scalding  water,  while  her  cannoneers  dared  not  show 
their  heads  to  Ellet'  s  sharpshooters,  who  were  within  a  few 
feet  of  them.  Another  Rebel  boat  came  up  to  strike  the 
ram,  but  the  agile  little  craft  let  go  her  hold  and  backed 
out.  The  blow  intended  for  her  struck  the  Beauregard, 
Which  instantly  went  down,  "  hoist  with  his  own  petar." 

The  Sumter  and  the  Little  Rebel,  both  disabled,  were 
stranded  on  the  Arkansas  shore.  The  Jeff.  Thompson 
Was  set  on  fire  and  abandoned  by  her  crew.  In  a  few 
minutes  there  was  an  enormous  dazzling  flash  of  light,  a 
measureless  volume  of  black  smoke,  and  a  startling  roar, 
which  seemed  to  shake  the  earth  to  its  very  center.  For 
several  seconds  the  air  was  filled  with  falling  timbers. 
Exploding  her  magazine,  the  Rebel  gunboat  expired 
with  a  great  pyrotechnic  display. 

The  General  Bragg  received  a  fifty-pound  shot,  which 
tore  off  a  long  plank  under  her  water-mark,  and  she  was 
captured  in  a  sinking  condition.  The  Van  Dorn,  the 
only  Rebel  boat  which  survived  the  conflict,  turned  and 
fled  down  the  river. 

The  battle  lasted  just  one  hour  and  three  minutes. 
It  was  the  most  startling,  dramatic,  and  memorable  dis- 


262  A  SAILOR  ON  A  LARK.  [1862. 

play  of  the  whole  war.  On  our  side,  no  one  was  in 
jured  except  Colonel  Ellet,  who  had  performed  such 
unexampled  feats  with  his  little  rams.  A  splinter,  which 
struck  him  in  the  leg,  inflicted  a  fatal  wound. 

As  our  fleet  landed,  a  number  of  news-boys  sprang 
on  shore,  and,  a  moment  after,  were  running  through 
the  street,  shouting : 

" Here's  your  New-  York  Tribune  and  Herald—only 
ten  cents  in  silver  !" 

The  correspondents,  before  the  city  was  formally  sur 
rendered,  had  strolled  through  the  leading  streets.  At 
the  Gayoso  House  they  registered  their  names  immedi 
ately  under  those  of  the  fugacious  Rebel  general,  and 
ordered  dinner. 

The  Memphis  Rebels,  who  had  predicted  a  siege 
rivaling  Saragossa  and  Londonderry,  were  in  a  condition 
of  stupor  for  two  weeks  after  our  arrival.  They  rubbed 
their  eyes  wonderingly,  to  see  Union  officers  and  Aboli 
tion  journalists  at  large  without  any  suggestions  of  hang 
ing  or  tarring  and  feathering.  Remembering  my  last 
visit,  it  was  with  peculiar  satisfaction  that  I  appended 
in  enormous  letters  to  my  signature  upon  the  hotel  regis 
ter,  the  name  of  the  journal  I  served. 

On  the  day  of  the  capture,  an  intoxicated  seaman  from 
one  of  the  gun-boats,  who  had  been  shut  up  for  several 
months,  went  on  shore  "  skylarking."  Offering  his  arms 
to  the  first  two  negro  women  he  met,  he  promenaded  the 
whole  length  of  Main  street.  The  Memphis  Rebels  were 
suffering  for  an  outrage,  and  here  was  one  just  to  their 
mind. 

"If  that  is  the  way,  sir,"  remarked  one  of  them, 
"that  your  people  propose  to  treat  southern  gentlemen 
and  ladies — if  they  intend  to  thrust  upon  us  such  a  dis 
gusting  spectacle  of  negro  equality,  it  will  be  perilous 


1862.]  APPEARANCE  OF  THE  CAPTURED  CITY.  263 

for  them.     Do  they  expect  to  conciliate  our  people  in 
this  manner  ?' ' 

I  mildly  suggested  that  the  era  of  conciliation  ceased 
when  the  era  of  lighting  began.  The  sailor  was  arrested 
and  put  in  the  guard-house. 

Our  officers  mingled  freely  with  the  people.  No  citi 
zens  insulted  our  soldiers  in  the  streets  ;  no  woman  re 
peated  the  disgraceful  scenes  of  New  Orleans  by  spitting 
in  the  faces  of  the  "  invaders."  The  Unionists  received 
us  as  brothers  from  whom  they  had  long  been  separated. 
One  lady  brought  out  from  its  black  hiding-place,  in  her 
chimney,  a  National  flag,  which  had  been  concealed  there 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war.  A  Loyalist  told  me 
that,  coming  out  of  church  on  Sunday,  he  was  thrilled 
with  the  news  that  the  Yankees  had  captured  Fort  Don- 
elson ;  but,  with  a  grave  face,  he  replied  to  his  informant : 

"  That  is  sad  business  for  us,  is  it  not  ?" 

Reaching  home,  with  his  wife  and  sister,  they  gave 
vent  to  their  exuberant  joy.  He  could  not  huzza,  and  so 
he  relieved  himself  by  leaping  two  or  three  times  over  a 
center- table ! 

There  were  many  genuine  Rebels  whose  eyes  glared  at 
us  with  the  hatred  of  caged  tigers.  Externally  decorous, 
they  would  remark,  ominously,  that  they  hoped  our  sol 
diers  would  not  irritate  the  people,  lest  it  should  deluge 
the  streets  with  blood.  They  proposed  fabulous  wagers 
that  Sterling  Price' s  troops  could  whip  the  whole  Union 
army  ;  circulated  daily  reports  that  the  Confederates  had 
recaptured  New  Orleans  and  Nashville,  and  talked  mys 
teriously  about  the  fatality  of  the  yellow  fever,  and  the 
prospect  that  it  would  soon  break  out. 

Gladness  shone  from  the  eyes  of  all  the  negroes.  Their 
dusky  faces  were  radiant  with  welcome,  and  many  wo 
men,  turbaned  in  bright  bandanas,  thronged  the  office  of 


264  GRANT  ORDERS  AWAY  THE  JEWS.  [1862. 

the  provost-marshal,  applying  for  passage  to  the  North. 
We  found  Memphis  as  torpid  as  Syria,  where  Yusef 
Browne  declared  that  he  saw  only  one  man  exhibit  any 
sign  of  activity,  and  he  was  engaged  in  tumbling  from  the 
roof  of  a  house  !  But  stores  were  soon  opened,  and  tra 
ders  came  crowding  in  from  the  North.  Most  of  them 
were  Jews. 

Everywhere  we  saw  the  deep  eyes  and  pronounced 
features  of  that  strange,  enterprising  people.  I  observed 
one  of  them,  with  the  Philistines  upon  him,  marching  to 
the  military  prison.  The  pickets  had  caught  him  with 
ten  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  boots  and  shoes,  which  he 
was  taking  into  Dixie.  He  bore  the  miscarriage  with 
great  philosophy,  bewailing  neither  his  ducats  nor  his 
daughter,  his  boots  nor  his  liberty — smiling  complacently, 
and  finding  consolation  in  the  vilest  of  cigars.  But  in  his 
dark,  sad  eye  was  a  gleam  of  latent  vengeance,  which  he 
doubtless  wreaked  upon  the  first  unfortunate  customer 
who  fell  into  his  clutches  after  his  release. 

Glancing  at  the  guests  who  crowded  the  dining-hall 
of  the  Gayoso,  one  might  have  believed  that  the  lost 
tribes  of  Israel  were  gathering  there  for  the  Millennium. 

Many  of  them  engaged  in  contraband  traffic,  supply 
ing  the  Eebels  with  food,  and  even  with  ammunition. 
Some  months  after,  these  very  gross  abuses  induced  Grant 
to  issue  a  sweeping  ukase  expelling  all  Jews  from  his  de 
partment — an  order  which  the  President  wisely  counter 
manded. 

The  Rebel  authorities  had  destroyed  all  the  cotton, 
sugar,  and  molasses  they  could  find ;  but  these  articles 
now  began  to  emerge  from  novel  hiding-places.  One 
gentleman  had  fifty  bales  of  cotton  in  his  closed  parlor. 
Hundreds  of  bales  were  concealed  in  the  woods,  in  lofts, 
and  in  cellars.  Much  sugar  was  buried.  One  man,  en- 


18C2.]  A  REBEL  PAPER  SUPERVISED.  265 

tombing  fifteen  hogsheads,  neglected  to  throw  up  a 
mound  to  turn  off  the  water  ;  when  he  dug  for  his  sugar, 
its  linked  sweetness  was  too  long  drawn  out !  The  hogs 
heads  were  empty. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  a  little  party  of  Union  officers 
came  galloping  into  the  city  from  the  country.  They 
were  evidently  no  gala-day  soldiers.  Their  sun-browned 
faces,  dusty  clothing,  and  jaded  horses  bespoke  hard 
campaigns  and  long  marches. 

One  horseman,  in  a  blue  cap  and  plain  blouse,  bore 
no  mark  of  rank,  but  was  noticeable  for  the  peculiar 
brilliancy  of  his  dark,  flashing  eye.  This  modest  soldier 
was  Major-General  Lew.  Wallace ;  and  his  division  ar 
rived  a  few  hours  after.  He  established  his  quarters  at 
the  Gayoso,  in  the  same  apartments  which  had  been  occu 
pied  successively  by  four  Rebel  commanders,  Pillow, 
Polk,  Van  Dorn,  and  Price. 

Tlie  Memphis  Argus,  a  bitter  Secession  sheet,  had 
been  allowed  to  continue  publication,  though  its  tone 
was  very  objectionable.  General  Wallace  at  once  ad 
dressed  to  the  proprietors  the  following  note : 

"  As  the  closing  of  your  office  might  be  injurious  to  you  pecuniarily, 
I  send  Messrs.  Richardson,  of  The  New  York  Tribune,  arid  Knox,  of  The 
New  York  Herald, — two  gentlemen  of  ample  experience — to  take  charge 
of  the  editorial  department  of  your  paper.  The  business  and  manage 
ment  will  be  left  to  you." 

The  publishers,  glad  to  continue  upon  any  terms,  ac 
quiesced,  and  thereafter  every  morning,  before  The  Argus 
went  to  pre^s,  the  proof-sheets  were  sent  to  us  for  re 
vision. 

The  first  dress-parade  of  Wallace's  original  regiment, 
the  Eleventh  Indiana  Infantry,  was  attended  by  hun 
dreds  of  Memphians,  curious  to  see  northern  troops 


266          "A  DAM  BLACK-HARTED  ABLICHINESS."       [1862. 

drawn  up  in  line.  They  wore  no  bright  trappings  or 
holiday  attire.  Their  well-kept  arms  shone  in  the  fading 
sunlight,  a  line  of  polished  steel ;  but  their  soiled  uni 
forms  had  left  their  brightness  behind  in  many  hard- 
fought  battles.  They  went  through  the  drill  with  rare 
precision.  The  Rebel  bystanders  clapped  their  hands 
heartily,  with  a  certain  unconscious  pride  that  these  sol 
diers  were  their  fellow- Americans.  The  spectacle  dimmed 
their  faith  in  their  favorite  five-to-one  theory. 

"  Well,  John,"  asked  one  of  them  beside  me,  "  how 
many  regiments  like  that  do  you  think  one  of  ours  could 
whip?" 

"  I  think  that  whipping  one  would  be  a  pretty  hard 
day's  work  !"  was  the  reply 

Months  before  our  arrival,  a  Union  employe  of  the 
Memphis  and  Ohio  Railroad  sold  a  watch  to  a  Secession 
comrade.  Vainly  attempting  to  collect  the  pay,  he 
finally  wrote  a  pressing  letter.  The  debtor  sent  back  the 
dun  with  this  reply  : 

"  SIR  :  My  privet  Apinion  is  Public  express  is  that  you  ar  A  Dam 
Black  harted  ablichiness  and  if  I  ever  hear  of  you  open  you  mouth  a  gane 
you  will  get  you  head  shave  and  cent  Back  to  you  free  nigar  Land  Whar 
you  be  along  these  are  fackes  and  you  now  I  can  prove  them  and  I  will 
Doet." 

The  Loyalist  pocketed  the  affront,  "  ablichiness"  and 
all,  and  nursed  his  wrath  to  keep  it  warm.  Meet 
ing  his  debtor  on  the  street,  after  the  arrival  of  our 
forces,  he  administered  to  him  a  merciless  flagellation. 
Before  our  Provost-Marshal  it  was  decided-  to  be  a  case 
of  "justifiable  assault,"  and  the  prisoner  was  discharged 
from  custody. 

In  the  deserted  office  of  The  Appeal  we  found  the  fol 
lowing  manuscript : — 


1862.]        CHALLENGE  FROM  A  SOUTHERN  WOMAN.         267 

"  A    CHALLENGE 

"  where  as  the  wicked  policy  of  the  president — Making  war  upon  the 
South  for  refusing  to  submit  to  wrong  too  palpable  for  Southerners  to  do. 
And  where  as  it  has  become  necessary  for  the  young  Men  of  our  country, 
My  Brother,  in  the  number  To  enlist  to  do  the  dirty  work  of  Driving  the 
Mercenarys  from  our  sunny  south,  whose  soil  is  too  holy  for  such 
wretches  to  tramp  And  whose  atmosphere  is  to  pure  for  them  to  breathe 
"  For  such  an  indignity  afford  to  Civilization  I  Merely  Challenge  any 
abolition  or  Black  .Republican  lady  of  character  if  there  can  be  such  a  ono 
found  among  the  negro  equality  tribe.  To  Meet  Me  at  Masons  and 
dixon  line.  "With  a  pair  of  Colt's  repeaters  or  any  other  weapon  they 
May  Choose,  That  I  May  receive  satis  faction  for  the  insult. 

"  Victoria  E.  Goodwin. 
"  Spring  Dale,  Miss.,  April  27,  1861." 

Confederate  currency  was  a  curiosity  of  literature  and 
fii^nce.  Dray-tickets  and  checks,  marked  "Good  for 
twenty-live  cents,"  and  a  great  variety  of  shinplasters, 
were  current.  One,  issued  Iby  a  baker,  represented 
"twenty-five  cents  in  drayage  or  confectionary,"  at  the 
option  of  the  holder.  Another  guaranteed  to  the  bearer 
"  the  sum  of  five  cents  from  the  Mississippi  and  Tennes 
see  Railroad  Company,  in  freight  or  passage  !" 

One  of  my  acquaintances  had  purchased  in  Chicago,  at 
ten  cents  a  dozen,  lithographic  fac-similes  of  the  regular 
Confederate  notes,  promising  to  pay  to  the  bearer  ten 
dollars,  six  months  after  a  treaty  of  peace  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Confederate  States.  A  Memphis 
merchant,  knowing  that  they  were  counterfeit,  manufac 
tured  only  to  sell  as  curiosities,  considered  their  execu 
tion  so  much  better  than  the  originals,  that  he  gladly  gave 
Tennessee  bank-notes  in  exchange  for  them.  My  friend 
subsisted  at  his  hotel  for  several  days  upon  the  proceeds 
of  these  fac-similes,  and  thought  it  cheap  boarding. 
While  Curtis'  s  army  was  in  northern  Arkansas,  our  offi 
cers  found  at  a  village  druggist' s  several  large  sheets  of  his 


268  A  DROLL  SPECIES  OF  CURRENCY.  [1862. 

printed  promises  to  pay,  neither  cut  nor  signed.  At  the 
next  village  one  of  them  purchased  a  canteen  of  whisky, 
and  offered  the  grocer  a  National  treasury  note  in  payment. 
The  trader  refused  it ;  it  was,  doubtless,  good,  but  might 
cause  him  trouble  after  the  army  had  left.  He  would  re 
ceive  either  gold  or  Confederate  money.  The  officer  ex 
hibited  one  of  these  blanks,  and  asked  if  he  would  take 
that.  "  0  yes,"  he  replied  ;  "  it  is  as  good  money  as  I 
want !"  And  he  actually  sold  two  hundred  and  fifty  can 
teens  of  whisky  for  those  unsigned  shinplasters,  cut  off 
from  the  sheets  in  his  presence  ! 

Late  in  June,  General  Grant,  accompanied  only  by 
his  personal  staff,  often  rode  from  Corinth  to  Memphis, 
ninety  miles,  through  a  region  infested  by  guerrillas. 

The  guests  at  the  Gayoso  House  regarded  with  much 
curiosity  the  quiet,  slightly- stooping,  rural-looking  Man 
in  cotton  coat  and  broad-brimmed  hat,  talking  little  and 
smoking  much,  who  was  already  beginning  to  achieve 
world- wide  reputation. 

A  party  of  native  Arkansans,  including  a  young 
lady,  arrived  in  Memphis,  coining  up  the  Mississippi  in 
an  open  skiff.  When  leaving  home  they  expected  to  en 
counter  some  of  our  gun-boats  in  a  few  hours,  and  pro 
vided  themselves  only  with  one  day's  food,  and  an  ample 
supply  of  champagne.  Accustomed  to  luxury,  and  all 
unused  to  labor,  in  the  unpitying  sun  they  rowed  for  five 
days  against  the  strong  current  of  the  Mississippi,  burnt, 
sick,  and  famishing.  For  five  nights  they  slept  upon 
the  ground  on  the  swampy  shore,  half  devoured  by 
musquitoes.  At  last  they  found  an  ark  of  safety  in  the 
iron-clad  St.  Louis. 

During  a  fight  at  St.  Charles,  on  the  White  Eiver,  the 
steam-drum  of  the  gun-boat  Mound  City  was  exploded 
by  a  Rebel  shot.  The  terrified  gunners  and  seamen, 


1862.]  A  CLEVER  REBEL  TRICK.  269 

many  of  them  horribly  scalded,  jumped  into  the  water. 
The  Confederates,  from  behind  trees  on  the  bank,  delib 
erately  shot  the  scalded  and  drowning  wretches  ! 

Halleck  continued  in  command  at  Corinth.  From 
some  cause,  his  official  telegrams  to  General  Curtis,  in 
Arkansas,  and  Commodore  Davis,  on  the  Mississippi, 
were  not  transmitted  in  cipher;  and  the  line  was  un 
guarded,  though  leading  through  an  intensely  Rebel 
region.  In  July,  the  Memphis  operators,  from  the  diffi 
cult  working  of  their  instruments,  surmised  that  some 
outsider  must  be  sharing  their  telegraphic  secrets.  One 
day  the  transmission  of  a  .message  was  suddenly  inter 
rupted  by  the  ejaculation  : 

' '  Pshaw  !    Hurra  for  Jeff  Davis !" 

Individuality  reveals  itself  as  clearly  in  telegraphing 
as  in  the  footstep  or  handwriting.  Mr.  Hall,  the  Mem 
phis  operator,  instantly  recognized  the  performer — by 
what  the  musicians  would  call  his  "  time" — as  a  former 
telegraphic  associate  in  the  North ;  and  sent  him  this 
message : 

"  Saville,  if  you  don't  want  to  be  hung,  you  had  bet 
ter  leave.  Our  cavalry  is  closing  in  on  all  sides  of  you." 

After  a  little  pause,  the  surprised  Rebel  replied  : 

"  How  in  the  world  did  you  know  me  ?  I  have  been 
here  four  days,  and  learned  about  all  your  military 
secrets ;  but  it  is  becoming  a  rather  tight  place,  and  I 
think  I  will  leave.  Good-by,  boys." 

He  made  good  his  escape.  In  the  woods  he  had  cut 
the  wire,  inserted  one  of  his  own,  and  by  a  pocket  in 
strument  perused  our  official  dispatches,  stating  the 
exact  number  and  location  of  United  States  troops  in 
Memphis.  Re-enforcements  were  immediately  ordered 
in,  to  guard  against  a  Rebel  dash. 

Later  in  July,  Sherman  assumed  command.    One  day, 


270  A  BIT  OF  SHERMAN'S  WAGGERY.  [1862. 

a  Ibereaved  man-owner  visited  him,  to  learn  how  he 
could  reclaim  his  runaway  slaves. 

"  I  know  of  only  one  way,  sir,"  replied  the  general, 
"  and  that  is,  through  the  United  States  marshal." 

The  unsuspecting  planter  went  up  and  down  the  city 
inquiring  for  that  civil  officer. 

i  i  Have  you  any  "business  with  him  f '  asked  a  Fed 
eral  captain. 

"  Yes,  sir.  I  want  my  negroes.  General  Sherman 
says  he  is  the  proper  person  to  return  them." 

' '  Undoubtedly  he  is.     The  law  prescribes  it.' ' 

' 'Is  he  in  town 3" 

"  I  rather  suspect  not." 

"  When  do  you  think  he  left  ?" 

"  About  the  time  Sumter  was  fired  on,  I  fancy." 

At  last  it  dawned  upon  the  planter' s  brain  that  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  void  after  the  people  drove  out 
United  States  officers.  He  went  sadly  back  to  Sherman, 
and  asked  if  there  was  no  other  method  of  recovering  his 
chattels. 

"  None  within  my  knowledge,  sir." 

"  What  can  I  do  about  it  ?" 

f '  The  law  provided  a  remedy  for  you  slaveholders  in 
cases  like  this ;  but  you  were  dissatisfied  and  smashed 
the  machine.  If  you  don't  like  your  work,  you  had 
better  set  it  to  running  again." 

On  the  7th  and  8th  of  March,  1862,  occurred  the 
battle  of  Pea  Ridge,  in  Arkansas.  Our  troops  were  com 
manded  by  General  Curtis.  Yandeveer's  brigade  made  a 
forced  march  of  forty-one  miles  between  2  o'clock  A.  M., 
and  10  P.  M.,  in  order  to  participate  in  the  engagement. 
The  fight  was  very  severe,  but  the  tenacity  of  the  west 
ern  soldiers  finally  routed  the  Rebels. 

There  chanced  to  be  only  one  New  York  correspon- 


18G2.]  FICTITIOUS  BATTLE  REPORTS.  271 

dent  with  Curtis' s  command.  During  the  battle  he  was 
wounded  by  a  fragment  of  shell.  He  sent  forward  his 
report,  with  calm  complacency,  presuming  that  it  was 
exclusive. 

But  two  other  New  York  journalists  in  St.  Louis, 
hearing  of  the  battle,  at  once  repaired  to  Holla,  the  near 
est  railway  point,  though  one  hundred  and  ninety-five 
miles  distant  from  Pea  Ridge.  Perusing  the  very 
meager  official  dispatches,  knowing  what  troops  were 
engaged,  and  learning  from  an  old  countryman  the 
topography  of  the  field,  they  wrote  elaborate  accounts  of 
the  two  days'  conflict. 

Indebted  to  their  imagination  for  their  facts,  they 
gave  minute  details  and  a  great  variety  of  incidents. 
Their  reports  were  plausible  and  graphic.  The  London 
Times  reproduced  one  of  them,  pronouncing  it  the  ablest 
and  best  battle  account  which  had  been  written  during 
the  American  war.  For  months,  the  editors  who  origin 
ally  published  these  reports,  did  not  know  that  they 
were  fictitious.  The}^  were  written  only  as  a  Bohemian 
freak,  and  remained  the  only  accounts  manufactured  by 
any  reputable  journalist  during  the  war. 

After  the  battle,  Curtis' s  army,  fifteen  thousand 
strong,  pursued  its  winding  way  through  the  interior  of 
Arkansas.  It  maintained  no  communications,  carrying 
its  base  of  supplies  along  with  it.  When  out  of  pro 
visions,  it  would  seize  and  run  all  the  neighboring  corn- 
mills,  until  it  obtained  a  supply  of  meal  for  one  or  two 
weeks,  and  then  move  forward. 

Day  after  day,  the  Memphis  Rebels  told  us,  with  ill- 
ooncealed  glee,  that  Curtis' s  army,  after  terrific  slaughter, 
had  all  been  captured,  or  was  just  about  to  surrender. 
For  weeks  we  had  no  reliable  intelligence  from  it.  But 
suddenly  it  appeared  at  Helena,  on  the  Mississippi, 


272      CURTIS'S  GREAT  MARCH  THROUGH  ARKANSAS.     [1862. 

seventy-five  miles  below  Memphis,  having  marched  more 
than  six  hundred  miles  through  the  enemy's  country. 
Despite  the  unhealthy  climate,  the  soldiers  arrived  in 
excellent  sanitary  condition,  weary  and  ragged,  "but  well, 
and  with  an  immense  train  of  followers.  It  was  a  com 
mon  jest,  that  every  private  came  in  with  one  horse,  one 
mule,  and  two  negroes. 

The  army  correspondents,  disgusted  with  the  hard 
ships  and  unwholesome  fare  of  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Ten 
nessee,  and  Mississippi,  often  predicted,  with  what  they 
thought  extravagant  humor  :— 

"When  Cincinnati  or  Chicago  "becomes  the  seat  of 
war,  all  this  will  be  changed.  We  will  take  our  ease  at 
our  inn,  and  view  battles  aesthetically." 

But  in  September,  this  jest  became  the  literal  truth. 
Bragg,  leaving  Buell  far  behind  in  Tennessee,  invaded 
Kentucky,  and  seriously  threatened  Cincinnati. 

Martial  law  was  declared,  and  all  Cincinnati  began 
arming,  drilling,  or  digging.  In  one  day,  twenty-five 
thousand  citizens  enrolled  their  names,  and  were  organized 
into  companies.  Four  thousand  worked  upon  the  Cov- 
ington  fortifications.  Newspaper  proprietors  were  in  the 
trenches.  Congressmen,  actors,  and  artists,  carried  mus 
kets  or  did  staff  duty. 

A  few  sneaks  were  dragged  from  their  hiding-places 
in  back  kitchens,  garrets,  and  cellars.  One  fellow  was 
found  in  his  wife' s  clothing,  scrubbing  away  at  the  wash- 
tub.  He  was  suddenly  stripped  of  his  crinoline  by  the 
German  guard,  who,  with  shouts  of  laughter,  bore  him 
away  to  a  working-party. 

New  regiments  of  volunteers  came  pouring  in  from 
Indiana,  Michigan,  and  the  other  Northwestern  States. 
The  farmers,  young  and  old,  arrived  by  thousands,  with 
their  shot-guns  and  their  old  squirrel-rifles.  The  market 


1862.]  "THE  SIEGE  OF  CINCINNATI."  273 

houses,  public  buildings,  and  streets,  were  crowded  with 
them.  They  came  even  from  New  York  and  Pennsyl 
vania,  until  General  Wallace  was  compelled  to  telegraph 
in  all  directions  that  no  more  were  needed. 

One  of  these  country  boys  had  no  weapon  except  an 
old  Revolutionary  sword.  Quite  a  crowd  gathered  one 
morning  upon  Sycamore  street,  where  he  took  out  his 
rusty  blade,  scrutinized  its  blunt  edge,  knelt  down,  and 
carefully  whetted  it  for  half  an  hour  upon  a  door-stone  ; 
then,  finding  it  satisfactorily  sharp,  replaced  it  in  the 
scabbard,  and  turned  away  with  a  satisfied  look.  His 
gravity  and  solemnity  made  it  very  ludicrous. 

Buell,  before  starting  northward  in  pursuit  of  Bragg, 
was  about  to  evacuate  Nashville.  Andrew  Johnson, 
Military  Governor  of  Tennessee,  implored,  expostulated, 
and  stormed,  but  without  effect.  He  solemnly  declared 
that,  if  all  the  rest  of  the  army  left,  he  would  remain  with 
his  four  Middle  Tennessee  regiments,  defend  the  city  to 
the  last,  and  perish  in  its  ashes,  before  it  should  be  given 
up  to  the  enemy.  Buell  finally  left  a  garrison,  which, 
though  weak  in  numbers,  proved  sufficient  to  hold  Nash 
ville. 

The  siege  of  Cincinnati  proved  of  short  duration. 
Buell's  veterans,  and  the  enthusiastic  new  volunteers 
soon  sent  the  Rebels  flying  homeward.  Then,  as  through 
the  whole  war,  their  appearance  north  of  Tennessee  and 
Virginia  was  the  sure  index  of  disaster  to  their  arms. 
Southern  military  genius  did  not  prove  adapted  to  the 
establishment  of  a  navy,  or  to  fighting  on  Northern  soil. 

Maryland  invaded,  Frankfort  abandoned,  Nashville 
evacuated,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  given  up  almost 
without  a  fight,  the  Rebels  threatening  the  great  com- 
mercial  metropolis  of  Ohio — these  were  the  disastrous, 
humiliating  tidings  of  the  hour.  These  were,  perhaps, 

18 


274  GLOOMIEST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR.  [1862. 

the  gloomiest  days  that  had  been  seen  during  the  war. 
We  were  paying  the  bitter  penalty  of  many  years  of 
National  wrong. 

"  God  works  no  otherwise ;  no  mighty  birth 
But  comes  with  throes  of  mortal  agony ; 
No  man-child  among  nations  of  the  earth 
But  findeth  its  baptism  in  a  stormy  sea." 


1862.]  OKDEIIED  TO  WASHINGTON.  2.75 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

He  that  outlives  this  day  and  comes  safe  home, 
Will  stand  a  tip-toe  when  this  day  is  named. 

— KING  HEKET  V. 

Much  work  for  tears  in  many  an  English  mother, 
Whose  sons  lie  scattered  on  the  bleeding  ground. 

KINO  JOHN. 

DURING  the  siege  of  Cincinnati,  the  Managing  Editor 
telegraphed  me  thus : 

"Repair  to  Washington  without  any  delay." 

An  hour  afterward  I  was  upon  an  eastern  train. 

At  the  Capital,  I  found  orders  to  join  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  It  was  during  Lee's  first  invasion.  In  Penn 
sylvania,  the  governor  and  leading  officials  nearly 
doubled  the  Confederate  army,  estimating  it  at  two 
hundred  thousand  men. 

Reaching  Frederick,  Maryland,  I  found  more  Union 
flags,  proportionately,  in  that  little  city,  than  I  had  ever 
seen  elsewhere.  The  people  were  intensely  loyal.  Four 
miles  "beyond,  in  a  mountain  region,  I  saw  winding,  fer 
tile  valleys  of  clear  streams,  rich  in  broad  corn-fields ; 
and  white  vine-covered  farm-houses,  half  hidden  in  old 
apple- orchards ;  while  great  hay  and  grain  stacks  sur 
rounded— 

"  The  gray  barns,  looking  from  their  hazy  hills 
O'er  the  dim  waters  widening  in  the  vales." 

The  roads  were  full  of  our  advancing  forces,  with 


276  ON  THE  WAR-PATH.  [1862. 

bronzed  faces  and  muscles  compacted  "by  their  long  cam 
paigning.  They  had  just  won  the  victory  of  South 
Mountain,  where  Hooker  found  exercise  for  his  peculiar 
genius  in  fighting  above  the  clouds,  and  driving  the 
enemy  by  an  impetuous  charge  from  a  dizzy  and  appa 
rently  inaccessible  hight. 

The  heroic  Army  of  the  Potomac,  which  had  suffered 
more,  fought  harder,  and  been  defeated  oftener  than  any 
other  National  force,  was  now  marching  cheerily  under 
the  unusual  inspiration  of  victory.  But  what  fearful 
loads  the  soldiers  carried !  Gun,  canteen,  knapsack, 
haversack,  pack  of  blankets  and  clothing,  often  must 
have  reached  fifty  pounds  to  the  man.  These  modern 
Atlases  had  little  chance  in  a  race  with  the  Rebels. 

There  were  crowds  of  sorry-looking  prisoners  march 
ing  to  the  rear ;  long  trains  of  ambulances  filled  with 
our  wounded  soldiers,  some  of  them  walking  back  with 
their  arms  in  slings,  or  bloody  bandages  about  their 
necks  or  foreheads ;  Rebel  hospitals,  where  unfortunate 
fellows  were  groaning  upon  the  straw,  with  arms  or  legs 
missing ;  eleven  of  our  lost,  resting  placidly  side  by 
side,  while  their  comrades  were  digging  their  graves 
hard  by ;  the  unburied  dead  of  the  enemy,  lying  in 
pairs  or  groups,  behind  rocks  or  in  fence  corners ;  and 
then  a  Rebel  surgeon,  in  bluish-gray  iiniform,  coming  in 
with  a  flag  of  truce,  to  look  after  his  wounded. 

All  the  morning  I  heard  the  pounding  of  distant  guns, 
and  at  4  P.  M.,  near  the  little  village  of  Keedysville,  I 
reached  our  front.  On  the  extreme  left  I  found  an  old 
friend  whom  I  had  not  met  for  many  years — Colonel 
Edward  E.  Cross,  of  the  Fifth  New  Hampshire  Infantry. 
Formerly  a  Cincinnati  journalist,  afterward  a  miner  in 
Arizona,  and  then  a  colonel  at  the  head  of  a  Mexican  regi 
ment,  his  life  had  been  full  of  interest  and  romance. 


1862.]  A  NOVEL  KIND  OF  DUEL.  277 

While  living  in  Arizona  he  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  the  pro- Slavery  politicians,  who  ruled  the  territory. 
Mowry,  their  self-styled  Delegate  to  Congress,  challenged 
him — probably  upon  the  hypothesis  that,  as  a  North 
erner,  he  would  not  recognize  the  code ;  but  Cross  was 
an  ugly  subject  for  that  experiment.  He  promptly  ac 
cepted,  and  named  Burnside  rifles  at  ten  paces  !  Mowry 
was  probably  ready  to  say  with  Falstaff— 

"  An'  I  thought  he  had  been  valiant  and  so  cunning  in  fence,  I'd 
have  seen  him  damned  ere  I  had  challenged  him." 

Both  were  dead  shots.  Their  seconds  placed  them 
across  the  strong  prairie  wind,  to  interfere  with  their 
aim.  At  the  first  fire,  a  ball  grazed  Mo  wry' s  ear.  At  the 
second,  a  lock  of  Cross' s  hair  was  cut  off. 

"  Rather  close  work,  is  it  not  ?"  he  calmly  asked  of  a 
bystander. 

At  the  third  fire,  Mowry' s  rifle  missed.  His  friends 
insisted  that  he  was  entitled  to  his  fire.  Those  of  the 
other  party  declared  that  this  was  monstrous,  and  that 
he  should  be  killed  if  he  attempted  it.  But  Cross  settled 
the  difficulty  by  deciding  that  Mowry  was  right,  and 
stood  serenely,  with  folded  arms,  to  receive  the  shot. 
The  would-be  Delegate  was  wise  enough  to  fire  into  the 
air.  Thus  ended  the  bloodless  duel,  and  the  journalist 
was  never  challenged  again. 

A  year  or  two  later,  I  chanced  to  be  in  El  Paso, 
Mexico,  shortly  after  Cross  had  visited  that  ancient 
city.  An  old  cathedral,  still  standing,  was  built  before 
the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock.  As 
cending  to  the  steeple,  Cross  pocketed  and  brought  away 
the  clapper  of  the  old  Spanish  bell,  which  was  hung' 
tfrere  when  the  edifice  was  erected. 

The  devout  natives  were  greatly  exasperated  at  this 


278       How  CORRESPONDENTS  AVOIDED  EXPULSION.      [1862. 

profanation,  and  would  have  killed  the  relic-hunting 
Yankee  had  they  caught  him.  I  heard  from  them  a  great 
deal  of  swearing  in  "bad  Spanish  on  the  subject. 

Now,  when  I  greeted  him,  his  men  were  deployed  in  a 
corn-field,  skirmishing  with  the  enemy' s  pickets.  He  was 
in  a  barn,  where  the  balls  constantly  whistled,  and  occa 
sionally  struck  the  building.  He  had  just  come  in  from 
the  front,  where  Confederate  bullets  had  torn  two  rents  in 
the  shoulder  of  his  blouse,  without  breaking  the  skin. 
A  straggling  soldier  passed  us,  strolling  down  the  road 
toward  the  Rebel  pickets. 

.."  My  young  friend,"  said  Cross,  "if  you  don't  want  a 
hole  through  you,  you  had  better  come  back." 

Just  as  he  spoke,  ping  !  came  a  bullet,  perforating  the 
hat  of  the  private,  who  made  excellent  time  toward  the 
rear.  A  moment  after,  a  shell  exploded  on  a  bank  near 
us,  throwing  the  dirt  into  our  faces. 

We  spent  the  night  at  the  house  of  a  Union  resident, 
of  Keedysville.  General  Marcy,  McClellan's  father-in- 
law  and  chief  of  staff,  who  supped  there,  inquired,  with 
some  curiosity,  how  we  had  gained  admission  to  the  lines, 
as  journalists  were  then  nominally  excluded  from  the 
army.  We  assured  him  that  it  was  only  by  "  strategy," 
the  details  whereof  could  not  be  divulged  to  outsiders. 

One  of  the  Tribune  correspondents  had  not  left  the 
army  since  the  Peninsular  campaign,  and,  remaining" 
constantly  within  the  lines,  his  position  had  never  been 
questioned.  Another,  who  had  a  nominal  appointment 
upon  the  staff  of  a  major-general,  wore  a  saber  and  passed 
for  an  officer.  I  had  an  old  pass,  without  date,  from 
General  Burnside,  authorizing  the  bearer  to  go  to  and  fro 
from  his  head-quarters  at  all  times,  which  enabled  me  to 
go  by  all  guards  with  ease. 

Marcy  engaged  lodgings  at  the  house  for  McClellan ; 


1862]     SHAMEFUL  SURRENDER  OF  HARPER'S  FERRY.     279 

but  an  hour  after,  a  message  was  received  that  the  general 
thought  it  better  to  sleep  upon  the  ground,  near  the 
bivouac-fires,  as  an  example  for  the  troops. 

Last  night  came  intelligence  of  the  surrender,  to  Stone 
wall  Jackson,  of  Harper's  Ferry,  including  the  impreg 
nable  position  of  Maryland  Hights  and  our  army. 

Colonel  Miles,'  who  commanded,  atoned  for  his  weak 
ness  with  his  life,  being  killed  by  a  stray  shot  just  after 
he  had  capitulated.  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Ford,  ex-Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  Ohio,  who  was  stationed  on  the 
Hights,  professed  to  have  a  written  order  from  Miles,  his 
superior  officer,  to  exercise  his  own  discretion  about  evac 
uating  ;  but  he  could  not  exhibit  the  paper,  and  stated 
that  he  had  lost  it.  He  gave  up  that  key  to  the  position 
without  a  struggle.  It  was  like  leaving  the  rim  of  a  tea 
cup,  to  go  down  to  the  bottom  for  a  defensive  point.  He 
was  afterward  tried  before  a  court-martial,  but  saved  from 
punishment,  and  permitted  to  resign,  through  the  clem 
ency  of  President  Lincoln.  In  any  other  country  he 
would  have  been  shot. 

On  September  16th,  General  McClellan  established  his 
head-quarters  in  a  great  shaded  brick  farm-house. 

Under  one  of  the  old  trees  sat  General  Sumner,  at 
sixty-four  erect,  agile,  and  soldierly,  with  snow-white 
hair.  A  few  yards  distant,  in  an  open  field,  a  party  of 
officers  were  suddenly  startled  by  two  shells  which 
dropped  very  near  them.  The  group  broke  up  and  scat 
tered  with  great  alacrity. 

uWhy,"  remarked  Sumner,  with  a  peculiar  smile, 
"the  shells  seem  to  excite  a  good  deal  of  commotion 
among  those  young  gentlemen  !" 

It  appeared  to  amuse  and  surprise  the  old  war-horse 
that  anybody  should  be  startled  by  bullets  or  shots. 

Lying  upon  the  ground  near  by,  with  his  head  resting 


280  A  CAVALRY  STAMPEDE.  [1862. 

upon  his  arm,  was  another  officer  wearing  the  two  stars 
of  a  major-general. 

"  Who  is  that  ?"  I  asked  of  a  journalistic  friend. 

" Fighting  Joe  Hooker,"  was  the  answer. 

With  his  side-whiskers,  rather  heavy  countenance, 
and  transparent  cheeks,  which  revealed  the  blood  like 
those  of  a  blushing  girl,  he  hardly  looked  all  my  fancy 
had  painted  him. 

Toward  evening,  at  the  head  of  his  corps,  preceded 
by  the  pioneers  tearing  away  fences  for  the  column, 
Hooker  led  a  forward  movement  across  Antietam  Creek. 
His  milk-white  horse,  a  rare  target  to  Rebel  sharpshooters, 
co.uld  be  seen  distinctly  from  afar  against  the  deep  green 
landscape.  I  could  not  believe  that  he  was  riding  into 
battle  upon  such  a  steed,  for  it  seemed  suicidal. 

•In  an  hour  we  halted,  and  the  cavalry  went  forward 
to  reconnoiter.  A  few  minutes  after,  Mr.  George  W. 
Smalley,  of  TJie  Tribune,  said  to  me  : 

' '  There  will  be  a  cavalry  stampede  in  about  five  min 
utes.  Let  us  ride  out  to  the  front  and  see  it." 

Galloping  up  the  road,  and  waiting  two  or  three  min 
utes,  we  heard  three  six-pound  shots  in  rapid  succession, 
and  a  little  fifer  who  had  climbed  a  tree,  shouted : 

"  There  they  come,  like  the  devil,  with  the  Rebels 
after  them  !" 

From  a  vast  cloud  of  dust,  emerged  soon  our  troopers 
in  hot  haste  and  disorder.  They  had  suddenly  awakened 
a  Rebel  battery,  which  opened  upon  them. 

"  We  will  stir  them  up,"  said  Hooker,  as  the  cavalry 
commander  made  his  report. 

"Why,  General,"  replied  the  major,  "they  have  some 
batteries  up  there !" 

"Well,  sir,"  answered  Hooker,  "have'ntwe  got  as 
many  batteries  as  they  have  ?  Move  on  !" 


1862.]          "FIGHTING  JOE  HOOKER"  IN  BATTLE.  281 

McClellan,  who  had  accompanied  the  expedition  thus 
far,  rode  back  to  the  rear.  Hooker  pressed  forward,  ac 
companied  by  General  Meade,  then  commanding  a  divi 
sion — a  dark- haired,  scholarly -looking  gentleman  in  spec 
tacles.  The  grassy  fields,  the  shining  streams,  and  the 
vernal  forests,  stretched  out  in  silent  beauty.  With  their 
bright  muskets,  clean  uniforms,  and  floating  flags, 
Hooker's  men  moved  on  with  assured  faces. 

"  'Twere  worth  ten  years  of  peaceful  life, 
One  glance  at  their  array." 

With  a  very  heavy  force  of  skirmishers,  we  pushed 
on,  finding  no  enemy.  Our  line  was  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  in  length.  Hooker  was  on  the  extreme  right,  close 
upon  the  skirmishers. 

As  we  approached  a  strip  of  woods,  a  hundred  yards 
wide,  far  on  our  extreme  left,  we  heard  a  single  musket. 
Then  there  was  another,  then  another,  and  in  an  instant 
our  whole  line  blazed  like  a  train  of  powder,  in  one  long 
sheet  of  flame. 

Right  on  our  front,  through  the  narrow  belt  of  woods, 
so  near  that  it  seemed  that  we  might  toss  a  pebble  to 
them,  rose  a  countless  horde  of  Rebels,  almost  instantly 
obscured  by  the  fire  from  their  muskets  and  the  smoke  of 
the  batteries. 

My  confrere  and  myself  were  within  a  few  yards  of 
Hooker.  It  was  a  very  hot  place.  We  could  not  dis 
tinguish  the  "ping"  of  the  individual  bullets,  but  their 
combined  and  mingled  hum  was  like  the  din  of  a  great 
Lowell  factory.  Solid  shot  and  shell  came  shrieking 
through  the  air,  but  over  our  heads,  as  we  were  on  the 
extreme  front. 

Hooker — common-place  before — the  moment  he  heard 
the  guns,  loomed  up  into  gigantic  stature.  His  eye 


282  THE  REBELS  WAVER  AND  BREAK.  [1862. 

gleamed  with  the  grand  anger  of  battle.  He  seemed  to 
know  exactly  what  to  do,  to  feel  that  he  was  master  of 
the  situation,  and  to  impress  every  one  else  with  the  fact. 
Turning  to  one  of  his  staff,  and  pointing  to  a  spot  near 
us,  he  said  : 

"  Go,  and  tell  Captain  —  -  to  "bring  his  battery 
and  plant  it  there  at  once  ! ' ' 

The  lieutenant  rode  away.  After  giving  one  or  two 
further  orders  with  great  clearness,  rapidity,  and  pre 
cision,  Hooker's  eye  turned  again  to  that  mass  of  Rebel 
infantry  in  the  woods,  and  he  said  to  another  officer, 
with  great  emphasis  : 

"  Go,  and  tell  Captain to  bring  his  battery  here 

instantly!" 

Sending  more  messages  to  the  various  divisions  and 
batteries,  only  a  single  member  of  the  staff  remained. 
Once  more  scanning  the  woods  with  his  eager  eye, 
Hooker  directed  the  aid  : 

"Go,   and  tell  Captain to  bring  that  battery 

here  without  one  second' s  delay.      Why,  my  God,  how 
he  can  pour  it  into  their  infantry  !" 

By  this  time,  several  of  the  body-guard  had  fallen 
from  their  saddles.  Our  horses  plunged  wildly.  A  shell 
plowed  the  ground  under  my  rearing  steed,  and  another 
exploded  near  Mr.  Smalley,  throwing  great  clouds  of 
dust  over  both  of  us.  Hooker  leaped  his  white  horse 
over  a  low  fence  into  an  adjacent  orchard,  whither  we 
gladly  followed.  Though  we  did  not  move  more  than 
thirty  yards,  it  took  us  comparatively  out  of  range. 

The  desired  battery,  stimulated  by  three  successive 
messages,  came  up  with  smoking  horses,  at  a  full  run, 
was  unlimbered  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  be 
gan  to  pour  shots  into  the  enemy,  who  were  also  suffer 
ing  severely  from  our  infantry  discharges.  It  was  not 


1862.]  A  NIGHT  AMONG  THE  PICKETS.  283 

many  seconds  before  they  "began  to  waver.  Through  the 
rifting  smoke,  we  could  see  their  line  sway  to  and  fro  ; 
then  it  "broke  like  a  thaw  in  a  great  river.  Hooker  rose 
up  in  his  saddle,  and,  in  a  voice  of  suppressed  thunder, 
exclaimed : 

"  There  they  go,  G— d  d n  them  !     Forward !" 

Our  whole  line  moved  on.  It  was  now  nearly  dark. 
Having  shared  the  experience  of  "Fighting  Joe  Hooker" 
quite  long  enough,  I  turned  toward  the  rear.  Fresh 
troops  were  pressing  forward,  and  stragglers  were  ranged 
in  long  lines  behind  rocks  and  trees. 

Eiding  slowly  along  a  grassy  slope,  as  I  supposed 
quite  out  of  range,  my  meditations  were  disturbed  by  a 
cannon-ball,  whose  rush  of  air  fanned  my  face,  and  made 
my  horse  shrink  and  rear  almost  upright.  The  next  mo 
ment  came  another  behind  me,  and  by  the  great  blaze  of 
a  fire  of  rails,  which  the  soldiers  had  built,  I  saw  it 
ricochet  down  the  slope,  like  a  foot-ball,  and  pass  right 
through  a  column  of  our  troops  in  blue,  who  were 
marching  steadily  forward.  The  gap  which  it  made  was 
immediately  closed  up. 

Men  with  litters  were  groping  through  the  darkness, 
bearing  the  wounded  back  to  the  ambulances. 

At  nine  o'clock,  I  wandered  to  a  farm-house,  occu 
pied  by  some  of  our  pickets.  We  dared  not  light  can 
dles,  as  it  was  within  range  of  the  enemy.  The  fam 
ily  had  left.  I  tied  my  horse  to  an  apple-tree,  and  lay 
down  iipon  the  parlor  floor,  with  my  saddle  for  a  pillow. 
At  intervals  during  the  night,  we  heard  the  popping  of 
musketry,  and  at  the  first  glimpse  of  dawn  the  picket- 
officer  shook  me  by  the  arm. 

' '  My  friend, ' '  said  he,  ' '  you  had  better  go  away  as 
soon  as  you  can;  this  place  is  getting  rather  hot  for 
civilians." 


284  THE  BATTLE  OF  ANTIETAM.  [1862. 

I  rode  around  through  the  field,  for  shot  and  shell 
were  already  screaming  up  the  narrow  lane. 

Thus  commenced  the  long,  hotly-contested  battle  of 
Antietam.  Our  line  was  three  miles  in  length,  with 
Hooker  on  the  right,  Burnside  on  the  left,  and  a  great 
gap  in  the  middle,  occupied  only  by  artillery ;  while 
Fitz-John  Porter,  with  his  fine  corps,  was  held  in  re 
serve.  From  dawn  until  nearly  dark,  the  two  great  ar 
mies  wrestled  like  athletes,  straining  every  muscle,  los 
ing  here,  gaining  there,  and  at  many  points  fighting  the 
same  ground  over  and  over  again.  It  was  a  fierce, 
sturdy,  indecisive  conflict. 

Five  thousand  spectators  viewed  the  struggle  from  a 
hill  comparatively  out  of  range.  Not  more  than  three 
persons  were  struck  there  during  the  day.  McClellan 
and  his  staff  occupied  another  ridge  half  a  mile  in  the  rear. 

"By  Heaven  !  it  was  a  goodly  sight  to  see, 
For  one  who  had  no  friend  or  brother  there." 

No  one  who  looked  upon  that  wonderful  panorama 
can  describe  or  forget  it.  Every  hill  and  valley,  every 
corn-field,  grove,  and  cluster  of  trees,  was  fiercely  fought 
for. 

The  artillery  was  unceasing  ;  we  could  often  count 
more  than  sixty  guns  to  the  minute.  It  was  like  thun 
der  ;  and  the  musketry  sounded  like  the  patter  of  rain 
drops  in  an  April  shower.  On  the  great  field  were 
riderless  horses  and  scattering  men,  clouds  of  dirt  from 
solid  shot  and  exploding  shells,  long  dark  lines  of  infan 
try  swaying  to  and  fro,  with  columns  of  smoke  rising 
from  their  muskets,  red  flashes  and  white  puffs  from  the 
batteries — with  the  sun  shining  brightly  on  all  this  scene 
of  tumult,  and  beyond  it,  upon  the  dark,  rich  woods, 
and  the  clear  blue  mountains  south  of  the  Potomac. 


1862.]       FEARFUL  SLAUGHTER  IN  THE  CORN-FIELD.       285 

We  saw  clearly  our  entire  line,  except  the  extreme 
left,  where  Burnside  was  hidden  by  intervening  ridges ; 
and  at  times  the  infantry  and  cavalry  of  the  Rebels.  We 
could  see  them  press  our  men,  and  hear  their  shrill 
yells  of  triumph.  Then  our  columns  in  blue  would  move 
forward,  driving  them  back,  with  loud,  deep-mouthed, 
sturdy  cheers.  Once,  a  great  mass  of  Rebels,  in  brown 
and  gray,  came  pouring  impetuously  through  a  corn 
field,  forcing  back  the  Union  troops.  For  a  moment 
both  were  hidden  under  a  hill ;  and  then  up,  over  the 
slope  came  our  soldiers,  flying  in  confusion,  with  the  en 
emy  in  hot  pursuit.  But  soon  after,  up  rose  and  opened 
upon  them  two  long  lines  of  men  in  blue,  with  shining 
muskets,  who,  hidden  behind  a  ridge,  had  been  lying  in 
wait.  The  range  was  short,  and  the  fire  was  deadly. 

The  Rebels  instantly  poured  back,  and  were  again  lost 
for  a  moment  behind  the  hill,  our  troops  hotly  following. 
In  a  few  seconds,  they  reappeared,  rushing  tumultuously 
back  into  the  corn-field.  TVhile  they  were  so  thick  that 
they  looked  like  swarming  bees,  one  of  our  batteries,  at 
short  range,  suddenly  commenced  dropping  shots  among 
them.  We  could  see  with  distinctness  the  explosions  of 
the  shells,  and  sometimes  even  thought  we  detected  frag 
ments  of  human  bodies  flying  through  the  air.  In  that 
field,  the  next  day,  I  counted  sixty-four  of  the  enemy's 
dead,  lying  almost  in  one  mass. 

Hooker,  wounded  before  noon,  was  carried  from  the 
field.  Had  he  not  been  disabled,  he  would  probably 
have  made  it  a  decisive  conflict.  Realizing  that  it  was 
one  of  the  world's  great  days,  he  said: 

"  I  would  gladly  have  compromised  with  the  enemy 
by  receiving  a  mortal  wound  at  night,  could  I  have 
remained  at  the  head  of  my  troops  until  the  sun  went 
down." 


286  BEST  BATTLE-REPORT  OF  THE  WAR.          [isea 

On  the  left,  Burnside,  who  had  a  strong,  high  stone 
"bridge  to  carry,  was  sorely  pressed.  McClellan  denied 
his  earnest  requests  for  re-enforcements,  though  the  best 
corps  of  the  army  was  then  held  in  reserve. 

The  Fifteenth  Massachusetts  Infantry  took  into  the 
"battle  five  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  brought  out  only 
one  hundred  and  fifty- six.  The  Nineteenth  Massachu 
setts,  out  of  four  hundred  and  six  men,  lost  all  but  one 
hundred  and  forty-seven,  including  every  commissioned 
officer  above  a  first  lieutenant.  The  Fifth  New  Hamp 
shire,  three  hundred  strong,  lost  one  hundred  and  ten 
privates  and  fourteen  officers.  Colonel  Cross,  who  sel 
dom  went  into  battle  without  receiving  wounds,  was 
struck  in  the  head  by  a  piece  of  shell  early  in  the  day, 
but  with  face  crimsoned  and  eyes  dimmed  with  blood,  he 
led  his  men  until  night  closed  the  indecisive  conflict. 

At  night,  the  four  Tribune  correspondents,  who  had 
witnessed  the  battle,  met  at  a  little  farm-house.  They 
prepared  hasty  reports,  by  a  flickering  tallow  candle,  in 
a  narrow  room  crowded  with  wounded  and  dying. 

Mr.  Smalley  had  been  with  Hooker  from  the  firing  of 
the  first  gun.  Twice  his  horse  had  been  shot  under  him, 
and  twice  his  clothing  was  cut  by  bullets.  Without 
food,  without  sleep,  greatly  exhausted  physically  and 
mentally,  he  started  for  New  York,  writing  his  report  on 
a  railway  train  during  the  night,  by  a  very  dim  light. 

Reaching  New  York  at  seven  in  the  morning,  he 
found  the  printers  awaiting  him  ;  and,  an  hour  later,  his 
account  of  the  conflict,  filling  five  Tribune  columns,  was 
being  cried  in  the  streets  by  the  news-boys.  Notwith 
standing  the  adverse  circumstances  of  its  preparation,  it 
was  vivid  and  truthful,  and  was  considered  the  best  bat 
tle-report  of  the  war. 


1862.]  THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  BATTLE.  287 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

— — Our  doubts  are  traitors, 

And  make  us  lose  the  good  we  oft  might  win, 
By  fearing  to  attempt. 

MEASURE  FOB  MEASUUK. 

IN  a  lull  of  the  musketry,  during  the  battle  of  Antie- 
tam,  McClellan  rode  forward  toward  the  front.  On  the 
way,  he  met  a  Massachusetts  general,  who  was  his  old 
friend  and  class-mate. 

" Gordon,"  he  asked,  "how  are  your  men ?" 

"They  have  behaved  admirably,"  replied  Gordon; 
"but  they  are  now  somewhat  scattered." 

"Collect  them  at  once.  We  must  fight  to-night  and 
fight  to-morrow.  This  is  our  golden  opportunity.  If 
we  cannot  whip  the  Rebels  here,  we  may  just  as  well 
all  die  on  the  field." 

That  was  the  spirit  of  the  whole  army.  It  was  uni 
versally  expected  that  McClellan  w^ould  renew  the  attack 
at  daylight  the  next  morning  ;  but,  though  he  had  many 
thousand  fresh  men,  and  defeat  could  only  be  repulse  to 
him,  while  to  the  enemy,  with  the  river  in  his  rear,  it 
would  be  ruin,  his  constitutional  timidity  prevented.  It 
was  the  costliest  of  mistakes. 

Thursday  proved  a  day  of  rest — such  rest  as  can  be 
found  with  three  miles  of  dead  men  to  bury,  and  thou 
sands  of  wounded  to  bring  from  the  field.  It  was  a  day 
of  standing  on  the  line  where  the  battle  closed — of  inter 
mittent  sharp-shooting  and  discharges  of  artillery,  but 


288  DOWN  AMONG  THE  DEAD  MEN.  [isea. 

no  general  skirmishing,  or  attempt  to  advance  on  either 
side. 

Riding  out  to  the  front  of  General  Couch's  line,  I 
found  the  Rebels  and  our  own  soldiers  mingling  freely 
on  the  disputed  ground,  bearing  away  the  wounded.  I 
was  scanning  a  Rebel  battery  with  my  field-glass,  at  the 
distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  when  one  of  our  pickets 
exclaimed : 

"Put  up  your  glass,  sir !  The  Johnnies  will  shoot  in 
a  minute,  if  they  see  you  using  it." 

In  front  of  Hancock' s  lines,  a  flag  of  truce  was  raised. 
Hancock — erect  and  soldierly,  with  smooth  face,  light 
eyes,  and  brown  hair,  the  finest-looking  general  in  our 
service — accompanied  by  Meagher,  rode  forward  into  a 
corn-field,  and  met  the  young  fire-eating  brigadier  of  the 
Rebels,  Roger  A.  Pry  or.  Pry  or  insisted  that  he  had 
seen  a  white  flag  on  our  front,  and  asked  if  we  desired 
permission  to  remove  our  dead  and  wounded.  Hancock 
indignantly  denied  that  we  had  asked  for  a  truce,  as  we 
claimed  the  ground,  stating  that,  through  the  whole  day, 
we  had  been  removing  and  ministering  to  both  Union 
and  Rebel  wounded.  He  suggested  a  cessation  of  sharp- 
shooting  until  this  work  could  be  completed.  Pryor 
declined  this,  and  in  ten  minutes  the  firing  reopened. 

"A  great  victory,"  said  Wellington,  "is  the  most 
awful  thing  in  the  world,  except  a  great  defeat."  An- 
tietam,  though  not  an  entire  victory,  had  all  its  terrific 
features.  Our  casualties  footed  up  to  twelve  thousand 
three  hundred  and  fifty-two,  of  whom  about  two  thou 
sand  were  killed  on  the  field. 

Between  the  fences  of  a  road  immediately  beyond  the 
corn-field,  in  a  space  one  hundred  yards  long,  I  counted 
more  than  two  hundred  Rebel  dead,  lying  where  they 
fell.  Elsewhere,  over  many  acres,  they  were  strewn 


1362.]  LEE  PERMITTED  TO  ESCAPE.  289 

singly,  in  groups,  and  occasionally  in  masses,  piled  up 
almost  like  cord-wood.  They  were  lying — some  with,  the 
human  form  undistinguishable,  others  with  no  outward 
indication  of  wounds — in  all  the  strange  positions  of  vio 
lent  death.  All  had  blackened  faces.  There  were  forms 
with  every  rigid  muscle  strained  in  fierce  agony,  and 
those  with  hands  folded  peacefully  upon  the  bosom  ; 
some  still  clutching  their  guns,  others  with  arm  upraised, 
and  one  with  a  single  open  finger  pointing  to  heaven. 
Several  remained  hanging  over  a  fence  which  they  were 
climbing  when  the  fatal  shot  struck  them. 

It  was  several  days  before  all  the  wounded  were  re 
moved  from  the  field.  Many  were  shockingly  mutilated ; 
but  the  most  revolting  spectacle  I  saw  was  that  of  a 
soldier,  with  three  fingers  cut  off  by  a  bullet,  leaving 
ragged,  bloody  shreds  of  flesh. 

On  Thursday  night  the  sun  went  down  with  the 
opposing  forces  face  to  face,  and  their  pickets  within 
stone's  throw  of  each  other.  On  Friday  morning  the 
Rebel  army  was  in  Virginia,  the  National  army  in  Mary 
land.  Between  dark,  and  daylight,  Lee  evacuated  the 
position,  and  carried  his  whole  army  across  the  river. 
He  had  no  empty  breastworks  with  which  to  endow  us ; 
but  he  left  a  field  plowed  with  shot,  watered  with  blood, 
and  sown  thick  with  dead.  We  found  the  debris  of  his 
late  camps,  two  disabled  pieces  of  artillery,  a  few  hun 
dred  of  his  stragglers,  two  thousand  of  his  wounded,  and 
as  many  more  of  his  unburied  dead ;  but  not  a  single' 
field-piece  or  caisson,  ambulance  or  wagon,  not  a  tent,  a 
box  of  stores,  or  a  pound  of  ammunition.  He  carried  with 
him  the  supplies  gathered  in  Maryland  and  the  rich, 
spoils  of  Harper's  Ferry. 

It  was  a  very  bitter  disappointment  to  the  army  and 
the  country. 

19 


290  THE  JOHN  BROWN  ENGINE-HOUSE.  [i862. 

BOLIVAR  BIGHTS,  MD.,  September  25,  1862. 

Adieu  to  western  Maryland,  with  the  stanch  loyalty 
of  its  suffering  people  !  Adieu  to  Sharpsburg,  which, 
cut  to  pieces  by  our  own  shot  and  shell  as  no  other 
village  in  America  ever  was,  gave  us  the  warm  welcome 
that  comes  from  the  heart !  Adieu  to  the  drenched 
field  of  Antietam,  with  its  glorious  Wednesday,  writing 
for  our  army  a  record  than  which  nothing  brighter  shines 
through  history  ;  with  its  fatal  Thursday,  permitting  the 
clean,  leisurely  escape  of  the  foe  down  into  the  valley, 
across  the  difficult  ford,  and  up  the  Virginia  Hights ! 
Our  army  might  have  been  driven  back  ;  it  could  never 
have  been  captured  or  cut  to  pieces.  Failure  was  only 
repulse  ;  success  was  crowning,  decisive,  final  victory. 
The  enemy  saw  this,  and  walked  undisturbed  out  of  the 
snare. 

Three  days  ago,  our  army  moved  down  the  left  bank 
of  the  Potomac,  climbing  the  narrow,  tortuous  road  that 
winds  around  the  foot  of  the  mountains ;  under  Mary 
land  Hights  ;  across  the  long,  crooked  ford  above  the 
blackened  timbers  of  the  railroad  bridge ;  then  up  among 
the  long,  bare,  deserted  walls  of  the  ruined  Government 
Armory,  past  the  engine-house  which  Old  John  Brown 
made  historic  ;  up  through  the  dingy,  antique,  oriental, 
looking  town  of  Harper's  Ferry,  sadly  worn,  almost 
washed  away  by  the  ebb  and  flow  of  war  ;  up  through 
the  village  of  Bolivar  to  these  Hights,  where  we  pitched 
our  tents. 

Behind  and  below  us  rushed  the  gleaming  river,  till 
its  dark,  shining  surface  was  broken  by  rocks.  Across 
it  came  a  line  of  our  stragglers,  wading  to  the  knees  with 
staggering  steps.  Beyond  it,  the  broad  forest-clad  Mary 
land  Hights  rose  gloomy  and  somber.  Down  behind 
me,  to  the  river,  winding  across  it  like  a  slender  S,  then 


]862.]       PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  REVIEWS  THE  ARMY.        291 

extending  for  half  a  mile  on  the  other  side,  far  up  along 
the  Maryland  hill,  stretched  a  division- train  of  snowy 
wagons,  standing  out  in  strong  relief  from  the  dark 
"background  of  water  and  mountain. 

Two  weeks  ago  shots  exchanged  "between  the  army 
of  Slavery  and  the  army  of  Freedom  shrieked  and 
screamed  over  the  engine-house,  where,  for  two  days, 
Old  John  Brown  held  the  State  of  Virginia  at  "bay.  A 
week  ago  its  walls  were  again  shaken  "by  the  thunders 
of  cannonade,  when  the  armies  met  in  fruitless  "battle. 
Last  night,  within  rifle-shot  of  it,  the  President' s  Procla 
mation  of  Emancipation  was  heard  gladly  among  thirty 
thousand  soldiers. 

October  2. 

President  Lincoln  arrived  here  yesterday,  and  re 
viewed  the  troops,  accompanied  by  McClellan,  Sumner, 
Hancock,  Meagher,  and  other  generals.  He  appeared 
in  black,  wearing  a  silk  hat ;  and  his  tall,  slender  form, 
and  plain  clothing,  contrasted  strangely  with  the  broad 
shoulders  arid  the  blue  and  gold  of  the  major-general 
commanding. 

He  is  unusually  thin  and  silent,  and  looks  weary  and 
careworn.  He  regarded  the  old  engine-house  with  great 
interest.  It  reminded  him,  he  said,  of  the  Illinois  custom 
of  naming  locomotives  after  fleet  animals,  such  as  the 
"Reindeer,"  the  "Antelope,"  the  "Flying  Dutchman," 
etc.  At  the  time  of  the  John  Brown  raid,  a  new  locomo 
tive  was  named  the  "  Scared  Virginians." 

The  troops  everywhere  cheered  him  with  warm  en 
thusiasm. 

October  13. 

The  cavalry  raid  of  the  Rebel  General  Stuart,  around 
our  entire  army,  into  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  and 
back  again,  crossing  the  Potomac  without  serious  loss,  is 


292  DODGING  REBEL  CANNON-BALLS.  [1862. 

the  one  theme  of  conversation.  It  was  audacious  and 
"brilliant.  On  his  return,  Stuart  passed  within  five  miles 
of  McClellan'  s  head-quarters,  which  were  separated  from 
the  rest  of  the  troops  by  half  a  mile,  and  guarded  only  by 
a  New  York  regiment.  Some  of  the  staif  officers  are  very 
indignant  when  they  are  told  that  Stuart  knew  the  inter 
est  of  the  Rebels  too  well  to  capture  our  commander. 

CHARLESTOWN,  VIRGINIA,  October  16. 

A  reconnoissance  to  the  front,  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  Hancock.  The  column  moved  briskly  over  the  broad 
turnpike,  through  ample  fields  rich  with  shocks  of  corn, 
past  stately  farm-houses,  with  deep  shade-trees  and 
orchards,  by  gray  barns,  surrounded  by  hay  and  grain 
stacks — beyond  our  lines,  over  the  debatable  ground, 
past  the  Rebel  picket- stations,  in  sight  of  Charlestown, 
and  yet  no  enemy  appeared. 

We  began  to  think  Confederates  a  myth.  But  sud 
denly  a  gun  belched  forth  in  front  of  us ;  another,  and 
yet  another,  and  rifled  shot  came  singing  by,  cutting 
through  the  tree-branches  with  sharp,  incisive  music. 

Two  of  our  batteries  instantly  unlimbered,  and  replied. 
Our  column  filled  the  road.  Nearly  all  the  Rebel  missiles 
struck  in  an  apple-orchard  within  twenty  yards  of  the 
turnpike ;  but  our  men  would  persist  in  climbing  the 
trees  and  gathering  the  fruit,  in  spite  of  the  shrieking 
shells. 

I  have  not  yet  learned  to  avoid  bowing  my  head  in 
stinctively  as  a  shot  screams  by ;  but  some  old  stagers 
sit  perfectly  erect,  and  laughingly  remind  me  of  Napo 
leon's  remark  to  a  young  officer:  "My  friend,  if  that 
shell  were  really  your  fate,  it  would  hit  you  and  kill  you 
if  you  were  a  hundred  feet  underground." 

We  could  plainly  see  the  Rebel  cavalry.     Far  in  ad- 


1862.]  "His  SOUL  is  MARCHING  ON."  293 

vance  of  all  others,  was  a  rider  on  a  milk-white  horse, 
which  made  him  a  conspicuous  mark.  The  sharpshooters 
tried  in  vain  to  pick  him  off,  while  he  sat  viewing  the 
artillery  drill  as  complacently  as  if  enjoying  a  panto 
mime.  Some  of  our  officers  declare  that  they  have  seen 
that  identical  steed  and  rider  on  the  Rebel  front  in  every 
light  from  York  town  to  Antietam. 

After  an  artillery  lire  of  an  hour,  in  which  we  lost 
eight  or  ten  men,  the  Rebels  evacuated  Charlestown,  and 
we  entered. 

The  troops  take  a  very  keen  interest  in  every  thing 
connected  with  the  historic  old  man,  who,  two  years  ago, 
yielded  up  his  life  in  a  field  which  is  near  our  camp. 
They  visit  it  by  hundreds,  and  pour  into  the  court-house, 
now  open  and  deserted,  where  he  was  tried,  and  made 
that  wonderful  speech  which  will  never  die.  They  scan 
closely  the  jail,  where  he  wrote  and  spoke  so  many  elec 
tric  words.  As  our  column  passed  it,  one  countenance 
only  was  visible  within — that  of  a  negro,  looking  through 
a  grated  window.  How  his  dusky  face  lit  up  behind  its 
prison-bars  at  the  sight  of  our  column,  and  the  words — 

"His  soul  is  marching  on!" 

sung  by  a  Pennsylvania  regiment ! 

Our  pickets  descried  a  solitary  horseman,  with  a 
basket  on  his  arm,  jogging  soberly  toward  them.  He 
proved  a  dark  mulatto  of  about  thirty-five,  and  halted  at 
their  order. 

"  Where  are  you  from  ?" 

"  Southern  army,  Cap'n." 

"  Where  are  you  going?" 

"Goin1  to  you' se  all." 

4 <  What  do  you  want?" 


294     AN  EMINENTLY  "  INTELLIGENT  CONTRABAND."     [1862. 

"  Protection,  "boss.     You  won't  send  me  "back,  will 
you?" 
.   "No,  come  in.     "Whose  servant  are  you  ?" 

"  Cap'n  Khett's,  of  South  Caroliny.  You'se  heard  of 
Mr.  Barn  well  Rhett,  Editor  of  The  Charleston  Mercury  ; 
Cap'n  is  his  brother,  and  commands  a  battery." 

i '  How  did  you  get  away  1' ' 

"Cap'n  gave  me  fifteen  dollars  this  morning.  He 
said:  'John,  go  out  and  forage  for  butter  and  eggs.' 
So  you  see,  "boss"  (with  a  "broad  grin),  "  I'se  out  foraging. 
I  pulled  my  hat  over  my  eyes,  and  jogged  along  on  the 
cap'n's  horse,  with  this  basket  on  my  arm,  right  by  our 
pickets.  They  never  challenged  me  once.  If  they  had 
I  should  have  shown  them  this." 

And  he  produced  from  his  pocket  an  order  in  pencil 
from  Captain  Rhett  to  pass  his  servant  John,  on  horse 
back,  in  search  of  butter  and  eggs. 

"  Why  did  you  expect  protection  ?" 

"  Heard  so  in  Maryland,  before  the  Proclamation." 

"  What  do  you  know  about  the  Proclamation?" 

"  Read  it,  sir,  in  a  Richmond  paper." 

"What  is  it?" 

' '  That  every  slave  is  to  be  emancipated  after  the  first 
day  of  next  January.  Isn'  t  that  it,  boss  ?' ' 

"  Something  like  it.     How  did  you  learn  to  read  ?" 

"A  New  York  lady  stopping  at  the  hotel  taught  me." 

"Did  you  ever  hear  of  Old  John  Brown  ?" 

"  Hear  of  him  !  Lord  bless  you,  yes ;  I've  his  life  now 
in  my  trunk  in  Charleston.  I'  ve  read  it  to  heaps  of  col 
ored  folks.  They  think  John  Brown  was  almost  a  god. 
Just  say  you  are  a  friend  of  his,  and  any  slave  will  kiss 
your  feet,  if  you  will  let  him.  They  think,  if  he  was 
only  alive  now,  he  would  be  king.  How  he  did  frighten 
the  wMte  folks !  It  was  Sunday  morning.  I  was  waiter 


1862.]  "THE  LORD  BLESS  You,  GENERAL!'*          295 

at  the  Mills  House,  in  Charleston.  A  lady  from  Massa 
chusetts  breakfasted  at  my  table.  *  John, 'she  says,  <I 
want  to  see  a  negro  church.  Where  is  the  best  one  ?' 
4  Not  any  open  to-day,  Missus,'  I  told  her.  '  Why  not  I9 
4  Because  a  Mr.  John  Brown  has  raised  an  insurrection 
in  Virginny,  and  they  don't  let  the  negroes  go  into  the 
street  to-day.'  '  Well,'  she  says,  '  they  had  better  look 
out,  or  they  will  get  their  white  churches  shut  up,  too, 
one  of  these  days.'  ' 

This  truly  intelligent  contraband,  being  taken  to  Mc- 
Clellan,  replied  very  modestly  and  intelligently  to  ques 
tions  about  the  numbers  and  organization  of  the  Rebel 
army.  At  the  close  of  the  interview,  he  asked  anx 
iously  : 

"  General,  you  won't  send  me  back,  will  you  ?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  McClellan,  with  a  smile,  "  I  believe  I 
will." 

"I  hope  you  won't,  General"  (with  great  earnest 
ness).  "  I  come  to  you'se  all  for  protection,  and  I  hope 
you  won't." 

"  Well,  then,  John,  you  are  at  liberty  to  stay  with 
the  army,  if  you  like,  or  to  go  where  you  please.  No 
one  can  ever  make  you  a  slave  again." 

"  May  the  Lord  bless  you,  General !  I  thought  you 
wouldn't  drive  me  out.  You'se  the  best  friend  I  ever 
had.  I  shall  never  forget  you  till  I  die." 

BOLIVAR  HIGHTS,   October  25. 

"  The  view  from  the  mountains  at  Harper's  Ferry," 
said  Thomas  Jefferson,  "is  worth  a  journey  across  the 
Atlantic." 

Let  us  approach  it  at  the. lower  price  of  climbing 
Maryland  Hights.  The  air  is  soft  and  wooing  to-day. 
It  is  the  time — 


296  CURIOSITIES  OF  THE  SIGNAL-CORPS.  [1862. 


;  just  ere  the  frost 


Prepares  to  pave  old  Winter's  way, 

When  Autumn,  in  a  reverie  lost, 
The  mellow  daylight  dreams  away  ; 

When  Summer  comes  in  musing  mind 
To  gaze  once  more  on  hill  and  dell, 

To  mark  how  many  sheaves  they  bind, 
And  see  if  all  are  ripened  well." 

Half  way  up  the  mountain,  you  rest  your  panting 
horse  at  a  battery,  among  bottle-  shaped  Dahlgrens,  sure 
at  thirty-five  hundred  yards,  and  capable  at  their  utmost 
elevation  of  a  range  of  three  miles  and  a  half;  black, 
solemn  Parrotts,  with  iron-banded  breech,  and  shining 
howitzers  of  brass.  Far  up,  accessible  only  to  footmen, 
is  a  long  breast-  work,  where  two  of  our  companies  re 
pulsed  a  Rebel  regiment.  How  high  the  tide  of  war 
must  run,  when  its  waves  wash  this  mountain-top  ! 
Here,  on  the  extreme  summit,  is  an  open  tent  of  the 
Signal-Corps.  It  is  labeled  : 

'T  TOUCH  THE  INSTRUMENTS.     ASK  NO  QUES 


Inside,  two  operators  are  gazing  at  the  distant  hights, 
through  fixed  telescopes,  calling  out,  "45,"  "169,"  "81," 
etc.,  which  the  clerk  records.  Each  number  represents 
a  letter,  syllable,  or  abbreviated  word. 

Looking  through  the  long  glass  toward  one  of  the 
seven  signal-stations,  from  four  to  twenty  miles  away, 
communicating  with  this,  you.  see  a  fiag,  with  some  large 
black  figure  upon  a  white  foreground.  It  rises  ;  so  many 
waves  to  the  right  ;  so  many  to  the  left.  Then  a  different 
flag  takes  its  place,  and  rises  and  falls  in  turn. 

By  these  combinations,  from  one  to  three  words  per 
minute  are  telegraphed.  The  operator  slowly  reads 
the  distant  signal  to  you  :  '  '  Two  —  hundred  —  Rebel  —  cav- 


1862.]      BEAUTIFUL  VIEW  FROM  MARYLAND  EIGHTS.       297 

airy — riding — out — of — Cliarlestown — this — way — field- 
piece — on — road,"  and  it  occupies  five  minutes.  Five 
miles  is  an  easy  distance  to  communicate,  but  messages 
can  be  sent  twenty  miles.  The  Signal-Corps  keep  on  the 
front ;  their  services  are  of  great  value.  Several  of  the 
members  have  been  wounded  and  some  killed. 

You  are  on  the  highest  point  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  four 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  one  thousand  above  the 
Potomac. 

Along  the  path  by  which  you  came,  climbs  a  pony ; 
on  the  pony's  back  a  negro  ;  on  the  negro's  head  a 
bucket  of  water  ;  then  a  mule,  bearing  a  coffee- sack,  con 
taining  at  each  end  a  keg  of  water.  Thus  all  provisions 
are  brought  up.  Here,  in  the  early  morning,  you  could 
only  look  out  upon  a  cold,  shoreless  sea  of  white  fog. 
Now,  you  look  down  upon  all  the  country  within  a  ra 
dius  of  twenty  miles,  as  you  would  gaze  into  your  garden 
from  your  own  house-top. 

You  see  the  Potomac  winding  far  away  in  a  thread  of 
silver,  broken  by  shrubs,  rocks,  and  islands.  At  your 
feet  lies  Pleasant  Valley,  a  great  furrow — two  miles 
across,  from  edge  to  edge — plowed  through  the  moun 
tains.  It  is  full  of  camps,  white  villages  of  tents,  and 
black  groups  of  guns.  You  see  cozy  dwellings,  with 
great,  well-iilled  barns,  red  brick  mills,  straw-colored 
fields  dotted  with  shocks  of  corn  and  reaching  far  up  into 
the  dark,  hill-side  woods,  green  sward-fields,  mottled  with 
orchards,  and  a  little  shining  stream.  A  dim  haze  rests 
upon  the  mountain-guarded  picture,  and  the  soft  wind 
seems  to  sing  with  Whittier : 

"  Yet  calm  and  patient  Nature  keeps 

Her  ancient  promise  well, 
Though  o'er  her  bloom  and  greenness  sweeps 
The  battle's  breath  of  hell. 


298  BURNSIDE    AT    HIS    TENT.  [1862. 

"And  still  she  walks  in  golden  hours 

Through  harvest-happy  farms, 
And  still  she  wears  her  fruits  and  flowers, 
Like  jewels  on  her  arms. 

"  Still  in  the  cannon's  pause  we  hear 

Her  sweet  thanksgiving  psalm ; 
Too  near  to  God  for  doubt  or  fear, 
She  shares  the  eternal  calm. 

"  She  sees  with  clearer  eye  than  ours 

The  good  of  suffering  born, — 
The  hearts  that  blossom  like  her  flowers, 
And  ripen  like  her  corn." 

See  the  regiments  on  dress  parade  ;  long  lines  of  dark 
"blue,  with  bayonets  that  flash  brightly  in  the  waning 
sunlight.  When  dismissed,  each  breaks  into  companies, 
which  move  toward  their  quarters  like  monster  antedilu 
vian  reptiles,  with  myriads  of  blue  legs, 

On  that  distant  hill- side,  just  at  the  forest' s  edge,  in  the 
midst  of  a  group  of  tents,  are  Burnside'  s  head-quarters. 
Through  your  field-glass,  you  see  standing  in  front  of 
them  the  military  man  whose  ambition  has  a  limit.  He 
has  twice  refused  to  accept  the  chief  command  of  the 
army.  There  stands  Burnside,  the  favorite  of  the  troops, 
in  blue  shirt,  knit  jacket,  and  riding-boots,  with  frank, 
manly  face,  and  full,  laughing  eyes. 

Under  your  feet  are  Bolivar  Hights,  crowned  with 
the  tents  of  Couch' s  Corps — dingy  by  reason  of  long  ser 
vice,  like  a  Spring  snow-drift  through  which  the  dirt  be 
gins  to  sift.  You  see  the  quaint  old  village  of  Harper' s 
Ferry,  and  glimpses  of  the  Potomac — gold  in  the  sunset — 
with  trees  and  rocks  mirrored  in  its  mellow  face. 

The  sun  goes  down,  and  the  glory  of  the  western  hills 
fades  as  you  slowly  descend  ;  but  the  picture  you  have 
seen  is  one  which  memory  paints  in  fast  colors. 


1862.]  ON  THE  MARCH  SOUTHWARD.  299 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

A  woman  moved  is  like  a  fountain  troubled, 
Muddy,  ill-seeming,  thick,  bereft  of  beauty. 

TAMING  or  TIIK  SHKKW. 

the  army  left  Harper's  Ferry,  on  a  forced 
march,  it  moved,  with  incredible  celerity,  thirty  miles  in 
nine  days  ! 

The  Virginians  east  of  the  Blue  Hidge  were  nearly 
all  hot  Secessionists.  The  troops,  who  had  behaved  well 
among  the  Union  people  of  Maryland,  saw  the  contrast, 
and  spoiled  the  Egyptians  accordingly.  I  think  if  Pha 
raoh  had  seen  his  homestead  passed  over  by  a  hungry, 
hostile  force,  he  would  have  let  the  people  go. 

In  the  presence  of  the  army,  many  professed  a  sort  of 
loyal  neutrality,  or  neutral  loyalty ;  but  I  did  not  hear  a 
single  white  Virginian  of  either  sex  claim  to  be  an  uncon 
ditional  Unionist. 

At  Woodgrove,  one  evening,  finding  that  wo  should 
not  go  into  camp  before  midnight,  I  sought  supper  and 
lodging  at  a  private  house  of  the  better  class.  My  mid 
dle-aged  host  and  his  two  young,  unmarried  sisters,  were 
glad  to  entertain  some  one  from  the  army,  to  protect  their 
dwelling  against  stragglers. 

The  elder  girl,  of  about  eighteen,  was  almost  a  mono 
maniac  upon  the  war.  She  declared  she  had  no  aspira 
tion  for  heaven,  if  any  Yankees  were  to  be  there.  She 
.  would  be  proud  to  kiss  the  dirtiest,  raggedest  soldier  ia 


300  REBEL  GIRL  WITH  A  SHARP  TONGUE.          [isca. 

the  Rebel  army.      I  refrained  from  discussing  politics 
with,  her,  and  we  talked  of  other  subjects. 

During  the  evening,  Generals  Gorman  and  Burns 
reached  the  house  to  seek  shelter  for  the  night.  The  of 
ficers,  discovering  the  sensitiveness  of  the  poor  girl,  ex 
pressed  the  most  ultra  sentiments.  Well  educated,  and 
with  a  tongue  like  a  rapier,  she  was  at  times  greatly  ex 
cited,  and  the  blood  crimsoned  her  face  ;  but  she  out- 
talked  them  all. 

"  By-the-way,"  asked  Burns,  mischievously,  "  do  you 
ever  read  The  Tribune?" 

She  replied,  with  intense  indignation  : 

4 '  Read  it !  I  would  not  touch  it  with  a  pair  of  tongs  ! 
It  is  the  most  infamous  Abolition,  negro-equality  sheet  in 
the  whole  world  !" 

"  So  a  great  many  people  say,"  continued  Burns. 
"  However,  here  is  one  of  its  correspondents." 

"latins  room!" 
uYes,  madam." 

"  He  must  be  even  worse  than  you,  who  come  down 
here  to  murder  us  !  Where  is  he  ?" 

"  Sitting  in  the  corner  there,  reading  letters." 

"  I  thought  you  were  deceiving  me.  That  is  no  Tri 
bune  correspondent.  I  do  not  believe  you."  (To  me  :) 
"This  Yankee  officer  says  that  you  write  for  Tlie  New 
York  Tribune.  You  don't,  do  you  ?" 

"  Yes,  madam." 

li  Why,  you  seem  to  be  a  gentleman.  It  is  not  true  ! 
It's  a  jest  between  you  just  to  make  me  angry.' 

At  last  convinced,  she  withheld  altogether  from  me 
the  expected  vituperation,  but  assailed  Burns  in  a  style 
which  made  him  very  glad  to  abandon  the  unequal  con 
test.  She  relentlessly  persisted  that  he  should  always 
Wear  his  star,  for  nobody  would  suspect  him  of  being  a 


1862.]      THE  NEGROES  "WATCHING  AND  WAITING."       301 

general  if  he  appeared  without  his  uniform — that  he  was 
the  worst  type  of  the  most  obnoxious  Yankee,  etc. 

At  Upperville,  the  next  day,  I  inquired  of  a  woman 
who  was  scrutinizing  us  from  her  door : 

"  Have  you  seen  any  Rebel  pickets  this  morning  ?" 

She  replied,  indignantly  : 

"  No  !    Why  do  you  call  them  Rebels  ?" 

"As  you  please,  madam  ;  what  do  you  call  them?" 

"  I  call  them  Southern  heroes,  sir  !" 

The  negroes  poured  into  our  lines  whenever  permitted. 

"  Well,  Uncle,"  I  asked  of  a  white-haired  patriarch, 
who  was  tottering  along  the  road,  "are  you  a  Rebel, 
like  everybody  else?" 

"  No,  sir  !  What  should  I  be  a  Rebel  for  ?  I  have 
been  wanting  to  come  to  you  all  a  heap  of  times  ;  but  I 
just  watched  and  waited." 

Watching  and  waiting!  Four  millions  of  negroes 
were  watching  and  waiting  from  the  beginning  of  the  war 
until  President  Lincoln's  Proclamation. 

On  the  march,  Major  O'Neil,  of  General  Meagher's 
staff,  started  with  a  message  to  Burnside,  who  was  a  few 
miles  on  our  left.  Unsuspectingly,  he  rode  right  into  a 
squad  of  cavalry  dressed  in  United  States  uniform.  He 
found  that  they  were  Stuart's  Rebels  in  disguise,  and 
that  he  was  a  captive.  O'Neil  had  only  just  been  ex 
changed  from  Libby  Prison,  and  his  prospect  was  dis 
heartening.  The  delighted  Rebels  sent  him  to  their  head 
quarters  in  Bloomfield,  under  guard  of  a  lieutenant  and 
two  men.  But,  on  reaching  the  village,  they  found  the 
head-quarters  closed. 

"I  wonder  where  our  forces  are  gone,"  said  the 
Rebel  officer.  4 '  Oh,  here  they  are !  Men,  guard  the 
prisoner  while  I  ride  to  them." 

And  he  galloped  down  the  street  to  a  company  of 


302  REMOVAL  OF  GENERAL  MC€LELLAN. 

approaching  cavalry.     Just  as  he  reached  them,  they 
leveled  their  carbines,  and  cried : 

"  Surrender!" 

He  had  made  precisely  the  same  mistake  as  Major 
O'Neil,  and  ridden  into  our  cavalry  instead  of  his  own. 
So,  after  spending  three  hours  in  the  hands  of  the  Rebels, 
O'Neil  found  himself  once  more  in  our  lines,  accompanied 
by  three  Rebel  prisoners. 

The  slaveholders  complained  greatly  of  the  depreda 
tions  of  our  army.  A  very  wealthy  planter,  who  had 
lost  nothing  of  much  value,  drew  for  me  a  frightful  pic 
ture  of  impending  starvation. 

"I  could  bear  it  myself,"  exclaimed  this  Virginian 
Pecksniff,  "but  it  is  very  hard* for  these  little  negroes, 
who  are  almost  as  dear  to  me  as  my  own  children." 

He  had  one  of  the  young  Africans  upon  his  knee,  and 
it  was  quite  as  white  as  "  his  own  children,"  who  were 
running  about  the  room.  The  only  perceptible  differ 
ence  was  that  its  hair  was  curly,  while  theirs  was 
straight. 

At  Warrenton,  on  the  7th  of  November,  McClellan 
was  relieved  from  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Po 
tomac.  He  issued  the  following  farewell : 

"  An  order  from  the  President  devolves  upon  Major-General  Burn- 
side  the  command  of  this  army.  In  parting  from  you,  I  cannot  ex 
press  the  love  and  gratitude  I  bear  you.  As  an  army,  you  have  grown 
under  my  care ;  in  you  I  have  never  found  doubt  or  coldness.  The  bat 
tles  you  have  fought  under  my  command  will  brightly  live  in  our 
nation's  history;  the  glory  you  have  achieved,  our  mutual  perils  and 
fatigues,  the  graves  of  our  comrades  fallen  in  battle  and  by  disease,  the 
broken  forms  of  those  whom  wounds  and  sickness  have  disabled,  make 
the  strongest  associations  which  can  exist  among  men.  United  still  by  an 
indissoluble  tie,  we  shall  ever  be  comrades  in  supporting  the  Constitu 
tion  of  our  country  and  the  nationality  of  its  people." 


1862.]         PICKETS  TALKING  ACROSS  THE  RIVER.          303 

McClellan's  political  and  personal  friends  were 
aggrieved  and  indignant  at  his  removal  in  the  midst  of  a 
campaign.  Three  of  his  staff  officers  even  made  a  fool 
ish  attempt  to  assault  a  Tribune  correspondent,  on 
account  of  the  supposed  hostility  of  that  journal  toward 
their  commander.  General  McClellan,  upon  hearing  of 
it,  sent  a  disclaimer  and  apology,  and  the  officers  were 
soon  heartily  ashamed. 

The  withdrawal  was  worked  up  to  its  utmost  dra 
matic  effect.  Immediately  after  reading  the  farewell  order 
to  all  the  troops,  there  was  a  final  review,  in  which  the 
outgoing  and  incoming  generals,  with  their  long  staffs, 
rode  along  the  lines.  Salutes  were  fired  and  colors 
dipped.  At  some  points,  the  men  cheered  warmly,  but 
the  new  regiments  were  "heroically  reticent."  McClel 
lan's  chief  strength  was  with  the  rank  and  file. 

Burnside  pushed  the  army  rapidly  forward  to  the 
Rappahannock.  The  Rebels  held  Fredericksburg,  on 
the  south  bank.  The  men  conversed  freely  across  the 
stream.  One  day  I  heard  a  dialogue  like  this : 

" Halloo,  butternut!" 

I  <  Halloo,  bluebelly!" 

"What  was  the  matter  with  your  battery,  Tuesday 
night?" 

i '  You  made  it  too  hot.  Your  shots  drove  away  the 
cannoneers,  and  they  haven't  stopped  running  yet.  We 
infantry  men  had  to  come  out  and  withdraw  the  guns." 

"You  infantrymen  will  run,  too,  one  of  these  fine 
mornings." 

I 1  When  are  you  coming  over  ?' ' 
"When  we  get  ready  to  come." 
"  What  do  you  want  ?" 
"Want  Fredericksburg." 
"Don't  you  wish  you  may  get  it ?" 


304  How  ARMY  CORRESPONDENTS  LIVED.          [1862. 

Here  an  officer  came  up  and  ordered  our  men  away. 

The  army  halted  for  some  weeks  in  front  of  Fred- 
ericksburg. 

By  this  time,  War  Correspondence  was  employing 
hundreds  of  pens.  The  Tribune  had  from  five  to  eight 
men  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  twelve  west  of 
the  Alleghanies.  My  own  local  habitation  was  the 
head-quarters  of  Major-General  O.  0.  Howard,  who 
afterward  won  wide  reputation  in  Tennessee  and  Geor 
gia,  and  who  is  an  officer  of  great  skill,  bravery,  and 
personal  purity. 

My  dispatches  were  usually  prepared,  and  those  of 
my  associates  sent  to  me,  at  night.  Before  dawn,  a  spe 
cial  messenger  called  at  my  tent  for  them,  and  bore  them 
on  horseback,  or  by  railway  and  steamer,  to  Washing 
ton,  whence  they  were  forwarded  to  New  York  by  mail 
or  telegraph. 

Correspondents  usually  lived  at  the  head-quarters  of 
some  general  officer,  bearing  their  due  proportion  of  mess 
expenditures  ;  but  they  were  compelled  to  rely  upon  the 
bounty  of  quartermasters  for  forage  for  their  horses,  and 
transportation  for  their  baggage. 

Having  no  legal  and  recognized  positions  in  the  army, 
they  were  sometimes  liable  to  supercilious  treatment  from 
young  members  of  staff.  They  were  sure  of  politeness 
and  consideration  from  generals  ;  yet,  particularly  in  the 
regular  army,  there  was  a  certain  impression  that  they 
deserved  Halleck's  characterization  of  "unauthorized 
hangers-on."  To  encourage  the  best  class  of  journalists 
to  accompany  the  army,  there  should  be  a  law  distinctly 
authorizing  representatives  of  the  Press,  who  are  engaged 
in  no  other  pursuit,  to  accompany  troops  in  the  field,  and 
purchase  forage  and  provisions  at  the  same  rates  as  offi 
cers.  They  should,  of  course,  be  held  to  a  just  responsi- 


1862.]  I'D    RATHER    BE    FREE.  305 

bility  not  to  publish  information  which  could  benefit  the 
enemy. 

Nightly,  around  our  great  division  camp-fire,  negroes 
of  all  ages  pored  over  their  spelling-books  with  com 
mendable  thirst  for  learning. 

One  boy,  of  fourteen,  was  considered  peculiarly  stu 
pid,  and  had  seen  hard  work,  rough  living,  and  no  pay, 
during  his  twelve  months1  sojourn  with  the  army.  I 
asked  him  :  "Did  you  work  as  hard  for  your  old  master 
as  you  do  here?" 

'•No,  sir." 

" Did  he  treat  you  kindly?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Were  you  as  well  clothed  as  now?" 

"Better,  sir." 

"And  had  more  comforts ?" 

"Yes,  sir ;  always  had  a  roof  over  me,  and  was  never 
exposed  to  rain  and  cold." 

"  Would  you  not  have  done  better  to  stay  at  home  ?" 

"  If  I  had  thought  so,  I  should  not  have  come  away, 
sir." 

i '  Would  you  come  again,  knowing  what  hardships 
were  before  you  ?' ' 

< '  Yes,  sir.     I'  d  rather  be  free  !" 

He  was  not  stupid  enough  to  be  devoid  of  human 
instinct ! 

In  December  occurred  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg. 
The  enemy's  position  was  very  strong — almost  impreg 
nable.  Onr  men  were  compelled  to  lay  their  pontoons 
across  the  river  in  a  pitiless  rain  of  bullets  from  the 
Eebel  sharpshooters.  But  they  did  it  without  flinching. 
Our  troops,  rank,  file,  and  officers,  marched  into  the 
jaws  of  death  with  stubborn  determination. 

We  attacked  in  three  columns ;  but  the  original  de- 
20 


306  THE  BATTLE  OF  FREDERICKSBURG.  [is62. 

sign  was  that  the  main  assault  should  be  on  our  left, 
which  was  commanded  by  General  Franklin.  A  road 
which  Franklin  wished  to  reach  would  enable  him  to 
come  up  in  the  rear  of  Fredericksburg,  and  compel  the 
enemy  to  evacuate  his  strong  works,  or  be  captured. 
Franklin  was  very  late  in  starting.  He  penetrated  once 
to  this  road,  but  did  not  know  it,  and  again  fell  back. 
Thus  the  key  to  the  position  was  lost. 

In  the  center,  our  troops  were  flung  upon  very  strong 
works,  and  repulsed  with  terrible  slaughter.  It  proved 
a  massacre  rather  than  a  battle.  Our  killed  and  wound 
ed  exceeded  ten  thousand. 

I  was  not  present  at  the  battle,  but  returned  to  the 
army  two  or  three  days  after.  Burnside  deported  him 
self  with  rare  fitness  and  magnanimity.  As  he  spoke  to 
me  about  the  brave  men  who  had  fruitlessly  fallen,  there 
were  tears  in  his  eyes,  and  his  voice  broke  with  emotion. 
When  I  asked  him  if  Franklin' s  slowness  was  respon 
sible  for  the  slaughter,  he  replied : 

"  No.  I  understand  perfectly  well  that  when  the 
general  commanding  an  army  meets  with  disaster,  he 
alone  is  responsible,  and  I  will  not  attempt  to  shift  that 
responsibility  upon  any  one  else.  No  one  will  ever 
know  how  near  we  came  to  a  great  victory.  It  almost 
seems  to  me  now  that  I  could  have  led  my  old  Ninth 
Corps  into  those  works." 

Indeed,  Burnside  had  desired  to  do  this,  but  was  dis 
suaded  by  his  lieutenants.  The  Ninth  Corps  would  have 
followed  him  anywhere  ;  but  that  would  have  been  cer 
tain  death. 

Burnside  was,  at  least,  great  in  his  earnestness,  his  mor 
al  courage,  and  perfect  integrity.  The  battle  was  better 
than  squandering  precious  lives  in  fevers  and  dysentery 
during  months  of  inaction.  Better  a  soldier's  death  on 


lacs.]         CURIOUS  BLUNDER  OF  THE  TELEGRAPH.          307 

the  enemy's  guns  than  a  nameless  grave  in  the  swamps 
of  the  Chickahominy  or  the  trenches  before  Corinth. 

Ordered  to  move,  Burnside  obeyed  without  quib 
bling  or  hesitating,  and  flung  his  army  upon  the  Rebels. 
The  result  was  defeat ;  but  that  policy  proved  our  sal 
vation  at  last ;  by  that  sign  we  conquered. 

Every  private  soldier  knew  that  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg  was  a  costly  and  bloody  mistake,  and  yet  I 
think  on  the  day  or  the  week  following  it,  the  soldiers 
would  have  gone  into  battle  just  as  cheerfully  and  stur 
dily  as  before.  The  more  I  saw  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  the  more  I  wondered  at  its  invincible  spirit, 
which  no  disasters  seemed  able  to  destroy. 

In  January,  among  the  lookers-on  in  Virginia,  was 
the  Hon.  Henry  J.  Raymond,  of  The  Times.  He  had  a 
brother  in  the  service,  and  one  day  he  received  this  tele 
gram  :— 

u  Your  brother's  corpse  is  at  Belle  Plain." 

Hastening  to  the  army  as  fast  as  steam  could  carry  him, 
to  perform  the  last  sad  offices  of  affection,  he  found  his 
relative  not  only  living,  but  in  vigorous  health.  Through 
the  eccentricities  of  the  telegraph,  the  word  corps  had 
been  changed  into  corpse. 

On  the  22d  of  January,  Burnside  attempted  another 
advance,  designing  to  cross  the  Rappahannock  in  three 
columns.  ^The  weather  for  a  long  time  had  been  fine, 
but,  a  few  hours  after  the  army  started,  the  heavens 
opened,  and  converted  the  Virginia  roads  into  almost 
fathomless  mire.  Advance  seemed  out  of  the  question, 
and  in  two  days  the  troops  came  back  to  camp.  The 
Rebels  understood  the  cause,  and  prepared  an  enormous 
sign,  which  they  erected  on  their  side  of  the  river,  in  full 


308  THE  BATTERIES  AT  FREDERICKSBURG. 

view  of  our  pickets,  "bearing  the  inscription,  "  STUCK  IN 
THE  MUD  !" 

ARMY  OF  POTOMAC,  NEAR  FALMOUTH,  VA.,  ) 
Monday,  Nov.  24.  j" 

Still  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Rappahannock  !  Upon 
the  high  bluffs,  along  a  line  of  three  miles,  twenty-four 
of  our  guns  point  threateningly  toward  the  enemy.  In 
the  ravines  behind  them  a  hundred  more  wait,  ready  to 
be  wheeled  up  and  placed  in  position. 

Upon  the  hills  south  of  the  river,  distant  from  them 
a  thousand  to  five  thousand  yards,  Rebel  guns  con 
front  them.  Some  peer  blackly  through  hastily-built 
earthworks ;  some  are  just  visible  over  the  crests  of 
sharp  ridges ;  some  almost  hidden  by  great  piles  of 
brush.  Already  we  count  eighteen ;  the  cannonading 
will  unmask  many  more. 

"Ah,  what  a  sound  will  rise,  how  wild  and  dreary, 

When  the  Death-angel  touches  these  swift  keys ! 
What  loud  lament  and  dismal  miserere 

Will  mingle  with  their  awful  symphonies!" 

In  front  of  our  right  batteries,  but  far  below  and  hid 
den  from  them,  the  antique,  narrow,  half- ruined  village 
of  Falmouth  hugs  the  river.  In  front  of  the  Rebel  bat 
teries,  in  full  view  of  both  sides,  the  broad,  well-to-do 
town  of  Fredericksburg,  with  its  great  factories,  tall 
spires,  and  brick  buildings,  is  a  tempting  target  for  our 
guns.  The  river  which  flows  between  (though  Freder 
icksburg  is  half  a  mile  below  Falmouth),  is  now  so  nar 
row,  that  a  lad  can  throw  a  s^one  across. 

Behind  our  batteries  and  their  protecting  hills  rests 
the  infantry  of  the  Grand  Division.  General  Couch's 
corps  occupies  a  crescent-shaped  valle}7 — a  symmetric 
natural  amphitheater.  It  is  all  aglow  nightly  with  a 


1863.]  A  DISAPPOINTED  VIRGINIAN.  309 

thousand  camp-fires  ;  and,  from  the  proscenium-hill  of 
General  Howard' s  head-quarters,  forms  a  picture  mock 
ing  all  earthly  canvas.  Behind  the  Rebel  batteries,  in 
the  dense  forest,  their  infantry  occupies  a  line  five  miles 
long.  By  night  we  just  detect  the  glimmer  of  their 
fires ;  by  day  we  see  the  tall,  slender  columns  of  smoke 
curling  up  from  their  camps. 

All  the  citizens  ask  to  have  guards  placed  over  their 
houses;  but  very  few  obtain  them.  "I  will  give  no 
man  a  guard,"  replied  General  Howard  to  one  of  these 
applicants,  "  until  he  is  willing  to  lose  as  much  as  I 
have  lost,  in  defending  the  Government."  The  Virgin 
ian  cast  one  long,  lingering  look  at  the  General's  loose, 
empty  coat-sleeve  (he  lost  his  right  arm  while  leading 
his  brigade  at  Fair  Oaks),  and  went  away,  the  picture  of 
despair. 

ASMY  OP  POTOMAC,  Sunday,  Dec.  21. 

The  general  tone  of  the  army  is  good ;  far  better 
than  could  be  expected.  There  is  regret  for  our  failure, 
sympathy  for  our  wounded,  mourning  for  our  honored 
dead ;  but  I  find  little  discouragement  and  no  demoral 
ization. 

This  is  largely  owing  to  the  splendid  conduct  of  all 
our  troops.  The  men  are  hopeful  because  there  are  few 
of  the  usual  jealousies  and  heart-burnings.  No  one  is 
able  to  say,  "If  this  division  had  not  broken,"  or  "if 
that  regiment  had  done  its  duty,  we  might  have  won." 
The  concurrence  of  testimony  is  universal,  that  our  men 
in  every  division  did  better  than  they  ever  did  before, 
and  made  good  their  claim  to  being  the  best  troops  in 
the  world.  We  have  had  victories  without  merit,  but 
this  was  a  defeat  without  dishonor. 

In  many  respects — in  all  respects  but  the  failure  of 


310  HONOR  TO  THE  BRAVE  AND  BOLD.  [isss. 

its  vital  object — the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  was  the 
finest  thing  of  the  war.  Laying  the  bridge,  pushing  the 
army  across,  after  the  defeat  withdrawing  it  success 
fully — all  were  splendidly  done,  and  redound  alike  to  the 
skill  of  the  general  and  the  heroism  of  the  troops. 

And  those  men  and  officers  of  the  Seventh  Michigan, 
the  Nineteenth  and  Twentieth  Massachusetts,  and  the 
Eighty-ninth  New  York,  who  eagerly  crossed  the  river 
in  open  boats,  in  the  teeth  of  that  pitiless  rain  of  bul 
lets,  and  dislodged  the  sharpshooters  who  were  holding 
our  whole  army  at  bay — what  shall  we  say  of  them? 
Let  the  name  of  every  man  of  them  be  secured  now, 
and  preserved  in  a  roll  of  honor ;  let  Congress  see  to  it 
that,  by  medal  or  ribbon  to  each,  the  Republic  gives 
token  of  gratitude  to  all  who  do  such  royal  deeds  in  its 
defense.  To  the  living,  at  least,  we  can  be  just.  The 
fallen,  who  were  left  by  hundreds  in  line  of  battle, 
"dead  on  the  field  of  honor,"  we  cannot  reward  ;  but 
He  who  permits  no  sparrow  to  fall  to  the  ground  un 
heeded,  will  see  to  it  that  no  drop  of  their  precious 
blood  has  been  shed  in  vain. 


1858.]         REMINISCENCES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  311 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 


He  hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead  like  angels,  tnimpet-tongued,  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off. 


MACBKTH. 


THE  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  while  these 
chapters  are  in  press,  attaches  a  sad  interest  to  every 
thing  connected  with  his  memory. 

During  the  great  canvass  for  the  United  States  Senate, 
between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Douglass,  the  right  of  Con 
gress  to  exclude  Slavery  from  the  Territories  was  the 
chief  point  in  dispute.  Kansas  was  the  only  region  to 
which  it  had  any  practical  application ;  and  we,  who 
were  residing  there,  read  the  debates  with  peculiar  in 
terest. 

No  such  war  of  intellects,  on  the  rostrum,  was  ever 
witnessed  in  America.  Entirely  without  general  culture, 
more  ignorant  of  books  than  any  other  public  man  of  his 
day,  Douglass  was  christened  "the  Little  Giant"  by  the 
unerring  popular  instinct.  He  who,  without  the  learning 
of  the  schools,  and  without  preparation,  could  cope  with 
Webster,  Seward,  and  Sumner,  surely  deserved  that  ap 
pellation.  He  despised  study.  Rising  after  one  of  Mr. 
Sumner' s  most  scholarly  and  elaborate  speeches,  he  said : 
"  Mr.  President,  this  is  very  elegant  and  able,  but  we  all 
know  perfectly  well  that  the  Massachusetts  Senator  has 
been  rehearsing  it  every  night  for  a  month,  before  a  look 
ing-glass,  with  a  negro  holding  a  candle  !" 

Douglass  was,  beyond  all  cotemporaries,  a  man  of  the 


312          His  GREAT  CANVASS  WITH  DOUGLASS. 

people.  Lincoln,  too,  was  distinctively  of  the  masses ; 
but  lie  represented  their  sober,  second  thought,  their 
higher  aspirations,  their  better  possibilities.  Douglas 
embodied  their  average  impulses,  both  good  and  bad. 
Upon  the  stump,  his  fluency,  his  hard  common  sense, 
and  his  wonderful  voice,  which  could  thunder  like  the 
cataract,  or  whisper  with  the  breeze,  enabled  him  to 
sway  them  at  his  will. 

Hitherto  invincible  at  home,  he  now  found  a  foeman 
worthy  of  his  steel.  All  over  the  country  people  began 
to  ask  about  this  "Honest  Abe  Lincoln,"  whose  inex 
haustible  "anecdotes  were  so  droll,  yet  so  exactly  to  the 
point ;  whose  logic  was  so  irresistible ;  whose  modesty, 
fairness,  and  personal  integrity,  won  golden  opinions  from 
his  political  enemies  ;  who,  without  "  trimming,"  enjoyed 
the  support  of  the  many-headed  Opposition  in  Illinois, 
from  the  Abolition  Owen  Lovejoys  of  the  northern  coun 
ties,  down  to  the  "  conservative"  old  Whigs  of  the 
Egyptian  districts,  who  still  believed  in  the  divinity  of 
Slavery. 

Those  who  did  not  witness  it  will  never  comprehend 
the  universal  and  intense  horror  at  every  thing  looking 
toward  ' '  negro  equality ' '  which  then  prevailed  in  south 
ern  Illinois.  Republican  politicians  succumbed  to  it. 
In  their  journals  and  platforms  they  sometimes  said 
distinctly:  "We  care  nothing  for  the  negro.  We  ad 
vocate  his  exclusion  from  our  State.  We  oppose  Slave 
ry  in  the  Territories  only  because  it  is  a  curse  to  the 
white  man."  Mr.  Lincoln  never  descended  to  this 
level.  In  his  plain,  moderate,  conciliatory  way,  he 
would  urge  upon  his  simple  auditors  that  this  matter 
had  a  Right  and  a  Wrong — that  the  great  Declaration 
of  their  fathers  meant  something.  And — always  his 
strong  point — he  would  put  this  so  clearly  to  the  com- 


1859.]  His  VISIT  TO  KANSAS.  313 

mon  apprehension,  and  so  touch  the  people's  moral 
sense,  that  his  opponents  found  their  old  cries  of  "  Abo 
litionist"  and  "  Negro- worshiper"  hollow  and  powerless. 

His  defeat,  by  a  very  slight  majority,  proved  victory 
in  disguise.  The  debates  gave  him  a  National  reputa 
tion.  Republican  executive  committees  in  other  States 
issued  verbatim  reports  of  the  speeches  of  both  Douglass 
and  Lincoln,  bound  up  together  in  the  order  of  their 
delivery.  They  printed  them  just  as  they  stood,  with 
out  one  word  of  comment,  as  the  most  convincing  plea 
for  their  cause.  Rarely,  if  ever,  has  any  man  received 
so  high  a  compliment  as  was  thus  paid  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 

In  Kansas  his  stories  began  to  stick  like  chestnut-burrs 
in  the  popular  ear — to  pass  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and 
from  cabin  to  cabin.  The  young  lawyers,  physicians, 
and  other  politicians  who  swarm  in  the  new  country, 
began  to  quote  from  his  arguments  in  their  public 
speeches,  and  to  regard  him  as  the  special  champion  of 
their  political  faith. 

Late  in  the  Autumn  of  1859  he  visited  the  Territory 
for  the  first  and  last  time.  With  Marcus  J.  Parrott, 
Delegate  in  Congress,  A.  Carter  Wilder,  afterward  Rep 
resentative,  and  Henry  Yillard,  a  Journalist,  I  went  to 
Troy,  in  Doniphan  County,  to  hear  him.  In  the  imagina 
tive  language  of  the  frontier,  Troy  was  a  "town"  —  pos 
sibly  a  city.  But,  save  a  shabby  frame  court-house,  a 
tavern,  and  a  few  shanties,  its  urban  glories  were  visible 
only  to  the  eye  of  faith.  It  was  intensely  cold.  The 
sweeping  prairie  wind  rocked  the  crazy  buildings,  and 
cut  the  faces  of  travelers  like  a  knife.  Mr.  Wilder  froze 
his  hand  during  our  ride,  and  Mr.  Lincoln' s  party  arrived 
wrapped  in  buffalo-robes. 

Not  more  than  forty  people  assembled  in  that  little, 
bare- walled  court-house.  There  was  none  of  the  mag- 


314  His  MANNER  OF  PUBLIC  SPEAKING. 

netism  of  a  multitude  to  inspire  the  long,  angular,  un 
gainly  orator,  who  rose  up  behind  a  rough  table.  With 
little  gesticulation,  and  that  little  ungraceful,  he  began, 
not  to  declaim,  but  to  talk.  In  a  conversational  tone,  he 
argued  the  question  of  Slavery  in  the  Territories,  in  the 
language  of  an  average  Ohio  or  New  York  farmer.  I 
thought,  "If  the  Illinoisans  consider  this  a  great  man, 
their  ideas  must  be  very  peculiar." 

But  in  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  I  was  unconsciously  and 
irresistibly  drawn  by  the  clearness  and  closeness  of  his 
argument.  Link  after  link  it  was  forged  and  welded 
like  a  blacksmith's  chain.  He  made  few  assertions,  but 
merely  asked  questions:  "Is  not  this  true?  If  you 
admit  that  fact,  is  not  this  induction  correct?"  Give 
him  his  premises,  and  his  conclusions  were  inevitable  as 
death. 

His  fairness  and  candor  were  very  noticeable.  He 
ridiculed  nothing,  burlesqued  nothing,  misrepresented, 
nothing.  So  far  from  distorting  the  views  held  by  Mr. 
Douglass  and  his  adherents,  he  stated  them  with  more 
strength  probably  than  any  one  of  their  advocates  could 
have  done.  Then,  very  modestly  and  courteously,  he 
inquired  into  their  soundness.  lie  was  too  kind  for  bit 
terness,  and  too  great  for  vituperation. 

His  anecdotes,  of  course,  were  felicitous  and  illustra 
tive.  He  delineated  the  tortuous  windings  of  the  De 
mocracy  upon  the  Slavery  question,  from  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  down  to  Franklin  Pierce.  Whenever  he  heard  a 
man  avow  his  determination  to  adhere  unswervingly  to 
the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party,  it  reminded  him, 
he  said,  of  a  "little  incident"  in  Illinois.  A  lad,  plow 
ing  upon  the  prairie,  asked  his  father  in  what  direction 
he  should  strike  a  new  furrow.  The  parent  replied, 
"  Steer  for  that  yoke  of  oxen  standing  at  the  further  end 


1859.]  HIGH  PRAISE  FROM  AN  OPPONENT.  315 

of  the  field."  The  father  went  away,  and  the  lad 
obeyed.  But  just  as  he  started,  the  oxen  started  also. 
He  kept  steering  for  them  ;  and  they  continued  to  walk. 
He  followed  them  entirely  around  the  field,  and  came 
back  to  the  starting-point,  having  furrowed  a  circle  in 
stead  of  a  line ! 

The  address  lasted  for  an  hour  and  three-quarters. 
Neither  rhetorical,  graceful,  nor  eloquent,  it  was  still 
very  fascinating.  The  people  of  the  frontier  believe 
profoundly  in  fair  play,  and  in  hearing  both  sides.  So 
they  now  called  for  an  aged  ex-Kentuckian,  who  was 
the  heaviest  slaveholder  in  the  Territory.  Responding, 
he  thus  prefaced  his  remarks : — 

"I  have  heard,  during  my  life,  all  the  ablest  public 
speakers — all  the  eminent  statesmen  of  the  past  and  the 
present  generation.  And  while  I  dissent  utterly  from  the 
doctrines  of  this  address,  and  shall  endeavor  to  refute 
some  of  them,  candor  compels  me  to  say  that  it  is  the 
most  able  and  the  most  logical  speech  I  ever  listened  to." 

I  have  alluded  in  earlier  pages,  to  remarks  touching 
the  reports  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  assassinated, 
which  I  heard  in  the  South,  on  the  day  of  his  first  in 
auguration.  Afterward,  in  my  presence,  several  persons 
of  the  wealthy,  slaveholding  class,  alluded  to  the  sub 
ject,  some  having  laid  wagers  upon  the  event.  I  heard 
but  one  man  condemn  the  proposed  assassination,  and  he 
was  a  Unionist.  Again  and  again,  leading  journals, 
which  were  called  reputable,  asked.:  "  Is  there  no 
Brutus  to  rid  the  world  of  this  tyrant?"  Rewards  were 
openly  proposed  for  the  President's  head.  If  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  then  been  murdered  in  Baltimore,  every 
thorough  Secession  journal  in  the  South  would  have  ex 
pressed  its  approval,  directly  or  indirectly.  Of  course, 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  masses,  or  all  Secessionists, 


316  A  DEED  WITHOUT  A  NAME.  [ises. 

would  have  desired  such  a  stain  upon  the  American 
name  ;  but  even  then,  as  afterward,  when  they  murdered 
our  captured  soldiers,  and  starved,  froze,  and  shot  our 
prisoners,  the  men  who  led  and  controlled  the  Rebels 
appeared  deaf  to  humanity  and  to  decency.  Charity 
would  fain  call  them  insane ;  but  there  was  too  much 
method  in  their  madness. 

Their  last,  great  crime  of  all  was,  perhaps,  needed  for 
an  eternal  monument  of  the  influence  of  Slavery.  It  was 
fitting  that  they  who  murdered  Lovejoy,  who  crimsoned 
the  robes  of  young  Kansas,  who  aimed  their  gigantic 
Treason  at  the  heart  of  the  Republic,  before  the  curtain 
went  down,  should  crown  their  infamy  by  this  deed  with 
out  a  name.  It  was  fitting  that  they  should  seek  the  lives 
of  President  Lincoln,  General  Grant,  and  Secretary  Sew- 
ard,  the  three  officers  most  conspicuous  of  all  for  their 
mildness  and  clemency.  It  was  fitting  they  should  as 
sassinate  a  Chief  Magistrate,  so  conscientious,  that  his 
heavy  responsibility  weighed  him  down  like  a  mill 
stone  ;  so  pure,  that  partisan  rancor  found  no  stain  upon 
the  hem  of  his  garment ;  so  gentle,  that  e'en  his  failings 
leaned  to  virtue's  side;  so  merciful,  that  he  stood  like 
an  averting  angel  between  them  and  the  Nation's  ven 
geance. 

The  Rebel  newspapers  represented  him — a  man  who 
used  neither  spirits  nor  tobacco — as  in  a  state  of  constant 
intoxication.  They  ransacked  the  language  for  epithets. 
Their  chief  hatred  was  called  out  by  his  origin.  He 
illustrated  the  Democratic  Idea,  which  was  inconceivably 
repugnant  to  them.  That  a  man  who  sprang  from  the 
people,  worked  with  his  hands,  actually  split  rails  in 
boyhood,  should  rise  to  the  head  of  a  Government  which 
included  Southern  gentlemen,  was  bitter  beyond  de> 
Bcription ! 


18G2.]         SHERMAN'S  QUARREL  WITH  THE  PRESS.          317 

On  the  28th  of  December,  1862,  Sherman  fought  the 
"battle  of  Chickasaw  Bayou,  one  of  our  first  fruitless  at 
tempts  to  capture  Vicksburg.  Grant  designed  to  co 
operate  by  an  attack  from  the  rear,  but  his  long  supply- 
line  extended  to  Columbus,  Kentucky,  though  he  might 
have  established  a  nearer  base  at  Memphis.  Yan  Dorn 
cut  his  communications  at  Holly  Springs,  Mississippi, 
and  Grant  was  compelled  to  fall  back. 

Sherman's  attack  proved  a  serious  disaster.  Our 
forces  were  flung  upon  an  almost  impregnable  bluff, 
where  we  lost  about  two  thousand  live  hundred  men, 
and  were  then  compelled  to  retreat. 

In  the  old  quarrel  between  Sherman  and  the  Press, 
as  usual,  there  was  blame  upon  both  sides.  Some  of 
the  correspondents  had  treated  him  unjustly  ;  and  he 
had  not  learned  the  quiet  patience  and  faith  in  the  future 
which  Grant  exhibited  under  similar  circumstances.  At 
times  he  manifested  much  irritation  and  morbid  sensi 
tiveness. 

A  well-known  correspondent,  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Knox, 
was  present  at  the  battle,  and  placed  his  report  of  it, 
duly  sealed,  and  addressed  to  a  private  citizen,  in  the 
military  mail  at  Sherman's  head-quarters.  One  "  Colo 
nel"  A.  IL  Markland,  of  Kentucky,  United  States  Postal 
Agent,  on  mere  surmise  about  its  contents,  took  the  let 
ter  from  the  mail  and  permitted  it  to  be  opened.  He  in 
sisted  afterward  that  he  did  this  by  Sherman' s  express 
command.  Sherman  denied  giving  any  such  order,  but 
said  he  was  satisfied  with  Markland' s  course. 

Markland  should  have  been  arrested  for  robbing 
the  Government  mails,  which  he  was  sworn  to  protect. 
There  was  no  reasonable  pretext  for  asserting  that  the 
letter  would  give  information  to  the  enemy  ;  therefore  it 
did  not  imperil  the  public  interest.  If  General  Sherman 


318     AN  ARMY  CORRESPONDENT  COURT-MARTIALED.       [i  sea. 

deemed  it  unjust  to  himself  individually,  lie  had  his 
remedy,  like  any  other  citizen  or  soldier,  in  the  courts  of 
the  country  and  the  justice  of  the  people. 

The  purloined  dispatch  was  left  for  four  or  five  days 
lying  about  Sherman's  head-quarters,  open  to  the  inspec 
tion  of  officers.  Finally,  upon  Knox' s  written  request, 
it  was  returned  to  him,  though  a  map  which  it  contained 
was  kept — as  he  rather  pungently  suggested,  probably 
for  the  information  of  the  military  authorities  ! 

Knox'  s  letter  had  treated  the  generalship  of  the  battle 
very  tenderly.  But  after  this  proceeding  he  immedi 
ately  forwarded  a  second  account,  which  expressed  his 
views  on  the  subject  in  very  plain  English.  Its  return 
in  print  caused  great  excitement  at  head-quarters.  Knox 
was  arrested,  and  tried  before  a  military  tribunal  on 
these  charges  : — 

I.  Giving  information  to  the  enemy. 

II.  Being  a  spy. 

III.  Violating  the  fifty-seventh  Article  of  War,  which 
forbids  the  writing  of  letters  for  publication  from  any 
United  States  army  without  submitting  them  to  the  com 
manding  general  for  approval. 

The  court-martial  sat  for  fifteen  days.  It  acquitted 
Knox  upon  the  first  and  second  charges.  Of  course,  he 
was  found  guilty  of  the  third.  After  some  hesitation  be 
tween  sentencing  him  to  receive  a  written  censure,  or  to 
leave  Grant' s  department,  the  latter  was  decided  upon, 
and  he  was  banished  fron  the  army  lines. 

When  information  of  this  proceeding  reached  Wash 
ington,  the  members  of  the  press  at  once  united  in  a  me 
morial  to  the  President,  asking  him  to  set  aside  the  sen 
tence,  inasmuch  as  the  violated  Article  of  War  was  al 
together  obsolete,  and  the  practice  of  sending  news 
paper  letters,  without  any  official  scrutiny,  had  been 


lees.]  A  VISIT  TO  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  319 

universal,  with  the  full  sanction  of  the  Government,  from 
the  outset  of  the  Rebellion.  It  was  further  represented 
that  Mr.  Knox  was  thoroughly  loyal,  and  the  most 
scrupulously  careful  of  all  the  army  correspondents  to 
write  nothing  which,  by  any  possibility,  could  give  in 
formation  to  the  enemy.  Colonel  John  W.  Forney 
headed  the  memorial,  and  all  the  journalists  in,  Wash 
ington  signed  it. 

One  evening,  with  Mr.  James  M.  Winchell,  of  T/ie 
New  YorJc  Times,  and  Mr.  H.  P.  Bennett,  Congressional 
Delegate  from  Colorado,  I  called  upon  the  President  to 
present  the  paper. 

After  General  Sigel  and  Representative  John  B. 
Steele  had  left,  he  chanced  to  be  quite  at  liberty.  Upon 
my  introduction,  he  remarked  : — 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  remember  you  perfectly  well :  you  were 
out  on  the  prairies  with  me  on  that  winter  day  when  we 
almost  froze  to  death  ;  you  were  then  correspondent  of 
The  Boston  Journal.  That  German  from  Leavenworth 
was  also  with  us — what  was  his  name  1" 

"  Hatterscheit  ?"  I  suggested.  "Yes,  Hatterscheit ! 
By-the-way"  (motioning  us  to  seats,  and  settling  down 
into  his  chair,  with  one  leg  thrown  over  the  arm),  "that 
reminds  me  of  a  little  story,  which  Hatterscheit  told  me 
during  the  trip.  He  bought  a  pony  of  an  Indian,  who 
could  not  speak  much  English,  but  who,  when  the  bar 
gain  was* completed,  said  :  '  Oats — no  !  Hay — no  !  Corn 
—no  !  Cottonwood — yes  !  very  much  !'  Hatterscheit 
thought  this  was  mere  drunken  maundering ;  "but  a  few 
nights  after,  he  tied  his  horse  in  a  stable  built  of  cotton- 
wood  logs,  fed  him  with  hay  and  corn,  and  went  quietly 
to  bed.  The  next  morning  he  found  the  grain  and  fod 
der  untouched,  but  the  barn  was  quite  empty,  with  a 
great  hole  on  one  side,  which  the  pony  had  gnawed  his 


320  Two  "LITTLE  STORIES."  [isea. 

way  through  !  Then  he  comprehended  the  old  Indian's 
fragmentary  English." 

This  suggested  another  reminiscence  of  the  same 
Western  trip.  Somewhere  in  Nebraska  the  party  came 
to  a  little  creek,  the  Indian  name  of  which  signiiied 
weeping  water.  Mr.  Lincoln  remarked,  with  a  good  deal 
of  aptness,  that,  as  laughing  water,  according  to  Long 
fellow',  was  "Miniie-haha,"  the  name  of  this  rivulet 
should  evidently  "be  "  Minne-boohoo." 

These  inevitable  preliminaries  ended,  we  presented 
the  memorial  asking  the  President  to  interpose  in  behalf 
of  Mr.  Knox.  He  promptly  answered  he  would  do  so  if 
Grant  coincided.  We  reminded  him  that  this  was  im 
probable,  as  Sherman  and  Grant  were  close  personal 
friends.  After  a  moment's  hesitancy  he  replied,  with 
courtesy,  but  with  emphasis  : — 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  serve  you  or  Mr.  Knox,  or  any 
other  loyal  journalist.  But,  just  at  present,  our  gene 
rals  in  the  field  are  more  important  to  the  country  than 
any  of  the  rest  of  us,  or  all  the  rest  of  us.  It  is  my  fixed 
determination  to  do  nothing  whatever  which  can  possi 
bly  embarrass  any  one  of  them.  Therefore,  I  will  do 
cheerfully  what  I  have  said,  but  it  is  all  I  can  do." 

There  was  too  much  irresistible  good  sense  in  this  to 
permit  any  further  discussion.  The  President  took  up 
his  pen  and  wrote,  reflecting  a  moment  from  time  to 
time,  the  following  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Ifarch  20, 1S63. 

Whom  it  may  concern: 

Whereas,  It  appears  to  my  satisfaction  that  Thomas  W.  Knox,  a  cor 
respondent  of  The  Neiot  York  Herald,  has  been,  by  the  sentence  of  a 
court-martial,  excluded  from  the  military  department  under  command  of 
Major-General  Grant,  and  also  that  General  Thayer,  president  of  the 
court-martial  which  rendered  the  sentence,  and  Major-General  McCler- 
nand,  in  command  of  a  corps  of  the  department,  and  many  other  respect- 


/r/C&<_4-^->     U 


xfe" 


1863.]        MR.  LINCOLN'S  FAMILIAR  CONVERSATION.        323 

able  persons,  are  of  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Knox's  offense  was  technical, 
rather  than  wilfully  wrong,  and  that  the  sentence  should  be  revoked ; 
Now,  therefore,  said  sentence  is  hereby  so  far  revoked  as  to  allow  Mr. 
Knox  to  return  to  General  Grant's  head-quarters,  and  to  remain  if  Gen 
eral  Grant  shall  give  his  express  assent,  and  to  again  leave  the  depart 
ment,  if  General  Grant  shall  refuse  such  assent. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Reading  it  over  carefully,  lie  handed  it  to  me,  and 
gave  a  little  sigh  of  relief.  General  conversation 
ensued.  Despondent  and  weighed  down  with  his  load 
of  care,  he  sought  relief  in  frank  speaking.  He  said, 
with  great  earnestness :  ' '  God  knows  that  I  want  to  do 
what  is  wise  and  right,  "but  sometimes  it  is  very  difficult 
to  determine." 

He  conversed  freely  of  military  affairs,  but  suddenly 
remarked :  "  I  am  talking  again  !  Of  course,  you  will 
remember  that  I  speak  to  you  only  as  friends ;  that  none 
of  this  must  be  put  in  print." 

Touching  an  attack  upon  Charleston  which  had  long 
been  contemplated,  he  said  that  Du  Pont  had  promised, 
some  weeks  before,  if  certain  supplies  were  furnished,  to 
make  the  assault  upon  a  given  day.  The  supplies  were 
promptly  forwarded ;  the  day  came  and  went  without 
any  intelligence.  Some  time  after,  he  sent  an  officer 
to  Washington,  asking  for  three  more  iron-clads  and  a 
large  quantity  of  deck-plating  as  indispensable  to  the 
preparations. 

"  I  told  the  officer  to  say  to  Commodore  Du  Pont," 
observed  Mr.  Lincoln,  "that  I  fear  he  does  not  appre 
ciate  at  all  the  value  of  time." 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  next  spoken  of.  The 
great  Fredericksburg  disaster  was  recent,  and  the  public 
heart  was  heavy.  In  regard  to  General  McClellan,  the 
President  spoke  with  discriminating  justice  :— 

"  I  do  not,  as  some  do,  regard  McClellan  either  as  a 


324      OPINIONS  ABOUT  MCCLELLAN  AND  VICKSBURG. 

traitor  or  an  officer  without  capacity.  He  sometimes  lias 
Tbad  counselors,  "but  lie  is  loyal,  and  lie  has  some  fine 
military  qualities.  I  adhered  to  him  after  nearly  all  my 
Constitutional  advisers  lost  faith  in  him.  But  do  you 
want  to  know  when  I  gave  him  up  ?  It  was  after  the 
battle  of  Antietam.  The  Blue  Ridge  was  then  between 
our  army  and  Lee's.  We  enjoyed  the  great  advantage 
over  them  which  they  usually  had  over  us  :  we  had  the 
short  line,  and  they  the  long  one,  to  the  Rebel  Capital. 
I  directed  McClellan  peremptorily  to  move  on  Rich 
mond.  It  was  eleven  days  before  he  crossed  his  first 
man  over  the  Potomac  ;  it  was  eleven  days  after  that 
before  he  crossed  the  last  man.  Thus  he  was  twenty- 
two  days  in  passing  the  river  at  a  much  easier  and  more 
practicable  ford  than  that  where  Lee  crossed  his  entire 
army  between  dark  one  night  and  daylight  the  next 
morning.  That  was  the  last  grain  of  sand  which  broke 
the  camel' s  back.  I  relieved  McClellan  at  once.  As  for 
Hooker,  I  have  told  Mm  forty  times  that  I  fear  he  may 
err  just  as  much  one  way  as  McClellan  does  the  other — 
may  be  as  over-daring  as  McClellan  is  over-cautious." 

We  inquired  about  the  progress  of  the  Vicksburg 
campaign.  Our  armies  were  on  a  long  expedition  up  the 
Yazoo  River,  designing,  by  digging  canals  and  threading 
bayous,  to  get  in  the  rear  of  the  city  and  cut  off  its  sup 
plies.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : — 

' '  Of  course,  men  who  are  in  command  and  on  the 
spot,  know  a  great  deal  more  than  I  do.  But  immedi 
ately  in  front  of  Yicksburg,  where  the  river  is  a  mile 
wide,  the  Rebels  plant  batteries,  which  absolutely  stop 
our  entire  fleets.  Therefore  it  does  seem  to  me  that  upon 
narrow  streams  like  the  Yazoo,  Yallabusha,  and  Talla- 
hatchie,  not  wide  enough  for  a  long  boat  to  turn  around 
in,  if  any  of  our  steamers  which  go  there  ever  come 


1863.]         OUR  BEST  CONTRIBUTION  TO  HISTORY.  325 

back,  there  must  be  some  mistake  about  it.  If  the 
enemy  permits  them  to  survive,  it  must  be  either  through 
lack  of  enterprise  or  lack  of  sense." 

A  few  months  later,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  able  to  announce 
to  the  nation :  "The  Father  of  Waters  again  flows  un- 
vexed  to  the  sea." 

Our  interview  left  no  grotesque  recollections  of  the 
President's  lounging,  his  huge  hands  and  feet,  great 
mouth,  or  angular  features.  We  remembered  rather  the 
ineffable  tenderness  which  shone  through  his  gentle  eyes, 
his  childlike  ingenuousness,  his  utter  integrity,  and  his 
absorbing  love  of  country. 

Ignorant  of  etiquette  and  conventionalities,  without 
the  graces  of  form  or  of  manner,  his  great  reluctance  to 
give  pain,  his  beautiful  regard  for  the  feelings  of  others, 
made  him 

""Worthy  to  bear  without  reproach 
The  grand  old  name  of  Gentleman." 

Strong  without  symmetry,  humorous  without  levity, 
religious  without  cant — tender,  merciful,  forgiving,  a  pro 
found  believer  in  Divine  love,  an  earnest  worker  for 
human  brotherhood — Abraham  Lincoln  was  perhaps  the 
best  contribution  which  America  has  made  to  History. 

His  origin  among  humble  laborers,  his  native  judg 
ment,  better  than  the  wisdom  of  the  schools,  his  perfect 
integrity,  his  very  ruggedness  and  angularities,  made 
him  fit  representative  of  the  young  Nation  which  loved 
and  honored  him. 

No  more  shall  sound  above  our  tumultuous  rejoicing 
his  wise  caution,  "Let  us  be  very  sober."  No  more 
shall  breathe  through  the  passions  of  the  hour  his  tender 
pleading  that  judgment  may  be  tempered  with  mercy. 
His  work  is  done.  Nothing  could  have  assured  and  en 
larged  his  posthumous  fame  like  this  tragic  ending.  He 


326  A  NOBLE  LIFE  AND  HAPPY  DEATH.  [ises. 

goes  to  a  place  in  History  where  his  peers  will  be  very 
few.  The  poor  wretch  who  struck  the  blow  has  gone  to 
be  judged  by  infinite  Justice,  and  also  by  infinite  Mercy. 
So  have  many  others  indirectly  responsible  for  the  mur 
der,  and  directly  responsible  for  the  war.  Let  us  remem 
ber  them  in  no  Pharisaic  spirit,  thanking  God  that  we 
are  not  as  other  men — but  as  warnings  of  what  a  race 
with  many  generous  and  manly  traits  may  become  by 
being  guilty  of  injustice  and  oppression. 

Some  of  the  President' s  last  expressions  were  words 
of  mercy  for  his  enemies.  A  few  hours  before  his  death, 
in  a  long  interview  with  his  trusted  and  honored  friend 
Schuyler  Colfax,  he  stated  that  he  wished  to  give  the 
Rebel  leaders  an  opportunity  to  leave  the  country  and 
escape  the  vengeance  which  seemed  to  await  them  here. 

America  is  never  likely  to  feel  again  the  profound, 
universal  grief  which  followed  the  death  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Even  the  streets  of  her  great  Metropolis  "for 
got  to  roar."  Hung  were  the  heavens  in  black.  For 
miles,  every  house  was  draped  in  mourning.  The  least 
feeling  was  manifested  by  that  sham  aristocracy,  which 
had  the  least  sympathy  with  the  Union  cause  and  with 
the  Democratic  Idea.  The  deepest  was  displayed  by  the 
" plain  people"  and  the  poor. 

What  death  is  happier  than  thus  to  be  wept  by  the 
lowly  and  oppressed,  as  a  friend  and  protector  !  What 
life  is  nobler  than  thus  to  be  filled,  in  his  own  golden 
words,  "with  charity  for  all,  with  malice  toward 
none  1" 


18G3.]  REMINISCENCES   OF    GENERAL    SlJMNER.  327 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


-It  is  held 


That  valor  is  the  chiefest  virtue  ani 
Most  dignifies  the  haver.     If  it  be, 
The  man  I  speak  of  cannot  in  the  world 
Be  siugly  counterpoised. 


CORIOLAXtJS. 


DURING  the  month  of  March,  Major- General  Edwin 
V.  Sumner  was  in  Washington,  apparently  in  vigorous 
health.  He  had  just  been  appointed  to  the  command  of 
the  Department  of  the  Missouri.  One  Saturday  evening, 
having  received  his  final  orders,  he  was  about  leaving 
for  his  home  in  Syracuse,  New  York,  where  he  designed 
spending  a  few  days  before  starting  for  St.  Louis. 

I  went  into  his  room  to  bid  him  adieu.  Allusion 
was  made  to  the  allegations  of  speculation  against 
General  Curtis,  his  predecessor  in  the  West.  "I  trust," 
said  he,  "  they  are  untrue.  No  general  has  a  right  to 
make  one  dollar  out  of  his  official  position,  beyond  the 
salary  which  his  Government  pays  him."  He  talked 
somewhat  in  detail  of  the  future,  remarking,  ' i  For  the 
present,  I  shall  remain  in  St.  Louis  ;  but  whenever  there 
is  a  prospect  of  meeting  the  enemy,  I  shall  take  the  field, 
and  lead  my  troops  in  person.  Some  men  can  fight 
battles  over  a  telegraph-wire,  but  you  know  I  have  no 
talent  in  that  direction." 

With  his  friendly  grasp  of  the  hand,  and  his  kindly 
smile,  he  started  for  home.  It  proved  to  him  Home 
indeed.  A  week  later  the  country  was  startled  by  intel 
ligence  of  his  sudden  death.  He,  who  for  forty-eight 


328  His  CONDUCT  IN  KANSAS.  [isea 

years  had  brayed  the  hardships  of  campaigning  and  the 
perils  of  battle,  until  he  seemed  to  have  a  charmed  life, 
was  abruptly  cut  down  by  disease  under  his  own  roof, 
surrounded  by  those  he  loved. 

t  "  The  breast  that  trampling  Death  could  spare, 

His  noiseless  shafts  assail.'' 

For  almost  half  a  century,  Sumner  had  belonged  to 
the  Army  of  the  United  States  ;  but  he  steadfastly 
refused  to  be  put  on  the  retired  list.  Entering  the  ser 
vice  from  civil  life,  he  was  free  from  professional  tradi 
tions  and  narrowness.  Senator  Wade  once  asked  him, 
u  How  long  were  you  at  the  Military  Academy  ?"  He 
replied,  "  I  was  never  there  in  my  life." 

The  bluff  Ohioan  sprang  up  arid  shook  him  fervidly 
by  the  hand,  exclaiming,  ' '  Thank  God  for  one  general 
of  the  regular  Army,  who  was  never  at  West  Point !" 

During  the  early  Kansas  troubles,  Sumner,  then  a 
colonel,  was  stationed  in  the  Territory  with  his  regiment 
of  dragoons.  Unscrupulous  as  were  the  Administrations 
of  Pierce  and  Buchanan  in  their  efforts  to  force  Slavery 
upon  Kansas,  embittered  as  were  the  people  against 
the  troops, — generally  mere  tools  of  Missouri  ruffians— 
their  feelings  toward  Sumner  were  kindly  and  grateful. 
They  knew  he  was  a  just  man,  who  would  not  willingly 
harass  or  oppress  them,  and  who  sympathized  with  them 
in  their  fiery  trial. 

From  the  outbreak  of  the  Slaveholders'  Rebellion 
his  name  was  one  of  the  brightest  in  that  noble  but 
unfortunate  army  which  illustrated  Northern  discipline 
and  valor  on  so  many  bloody  fields,  but  had  never  yet 
gathered  the  fruits  of  victory.  He  was  always  in  the 
deadliest  of  the  fighting.  He  had  the  true  soldierly 
temperament.  He  snuffed  the  battle  afar  off.  He  felt 


1863.]  A  THRILLING  SCENE  IN  BATTLE.  329 

"  the  rapture  of  the  strife,77  and  went  into  it  with  boyish 
enthusiasm. 

In  exposing  himself,  he  was  Imprudence  personified. 
It  was  the  chronic  wonder  of  his  friends  that  he  ever 
came  out  of  battle  alive.  At  last  they  began  to  believe, 
with  him,  that  he  was  invincible.  He  would  receive 
bullets  in  his  hat,  coat,  boots,  saddle,  horse,  and  some 
times  have  his  person  scratched,  but  without  serious 
injury.  His  soldiers  related,  with  great  relish,  that  in 
the  Mexican  War  a  ball  which  struck  him  square  in  the 
forehead  fell  flattened  to  the  ground  without  breaking 
the  skin,  as  the  bullet  glances  from  the  forehead  of  the 
buffalo.  This  anecdote  won  for  him  the  soubriquet  of 
"  Old  Buffalo." 

At  Fair  Oaks,  his  troops  were  trembling  under  a  piti 
less  storm  of  bullets,  when  he  galloped  up  and  down 
the  advance  line,  more  exposed  than  any  private  in  the 
ranks. 

"  What  regiment  is  this !"  he  asked. 

i  i  The  Fifteenth  Massachusetts, ' '  replied  a  hundred 
voices. 

"I,  too,  am  from  Massachusetts;  three  cheers  for 
our  old  Bay  State  !"  And  swinging  his  hat,  the  general 
led  off,  and  every  soldier  joined  in  three  thundering 
cheers.  The  enemy  looked  on  in  wonder  at  the  strange 
episode,  but  was  driven  back  by  the  fierce  charge  which 
followed. 

This  was  no  unusual  scene.  Whenever  the  guns 
began  to  pound,  his  mild  eye  would  flash  with  fire. 
He  would  remove  his  artificial  teeth,  which  became 
troublesome  during  the  excitement  of  battle,  and  place 
them  carefully  in  his  pocket ;  raise  his  spectacles  from 
his  eyes  and  rest  them  upon  the  forehead,  that  he  might 
see  clearly  objects  at  a  distance  ;  give  his  orders  to  sub- 


330  HOAV  SUMNER  FOUGHT.  [1862. 

ordinates,  and  then  gallop  headlong  into  the  thick  of 
the  light. 

Hundreds  of  soldiers  were  familiar  with  the  erect  form, 
the  snowy,  streaming  hair,  and  the  frank  face  of  that 
wonderful  old  man  who,  on  the  perilous  edge  of  "battle, 
while  they  were  falling  like  grass  before  the  mower, 
would  dash  through  the  fire  and  smoke,  shouting  : — 

4 'Steady,  men,  steady!  Doift  be  excited.  When 
you  have  been  soldiers  as  long  as  I,  you  will  learn  that 
this  is  nothing.  Stand  firm  and  do  your  duty  !" 

Never  seeking  a  dramatic  effect,  he  sometimes  dis 
played  quiet  heroism  worthy  of  history's  brightest 
pages.  Once,  quite  unconsciously  reproducing  a  historic 
scene,  he  repeated,  almost  word  for  word,  the  address 
of  the  great  Frederick  to  his  officers,  before  the  battle  of 
Leuthen.  It  was  on  the  bloody  field  of  Fair  Oaks,  at 
the  end  of  the  second  day.  He  commanded  the  forces 
which  had  crossed  the  swollen  stream.  But  before  the 
other  troops  came  up,  the  bridges  were  swept  away. 
The  army  was  then  cut  in  twain  ;  and  Sumner,  with  his 
three  shattered  corps,  was  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  enemy's 
entire  force. 

On  that  Sunday  night,  after  making  his  dispositions 
to  receive  an  attack,  he  sent  for  General  Sedgwick,  his 
special  friend  and  a  most  trusty  soldier : — 

"  Sedgwick,  you  perceive  the  situation.  The  enemy 
will  doubtless  open  upon  us  at  daylight.  Ee-enforce- 
ments  are  impossible  ;  he  can  overwhelm  and  destroy 
us.  But  the  countpy  cannot  afford  to  have  us  defeated. 
There  is  just  one  thing  for  us  to  do  ;  we  must  stand 
here  and  die  like  men!  Impress  it  upon  your  officers 
that  we  must  do  this  to  the  last  man — to  the  last  man  ! 
We  may  not  meet  again  ;  good-by,  Sedgwick." 

The   two   grim   soldiers   shook  hands,  and  parted. 


1862.]  ORDERED  BACK  BY  MCCLELLAN.  331 

Morning  came,  "but  the  enemy,  failing  to  discover  our 
perilous  condition,  did  not  renew  the  attack ;  new  bridges 
were  built,  and  the  sacrifice  was  averted.  But  Sumner 
was  the  man  to  carry  out  his  resolution  to  the  letter. 

Afterward,  he  retained  possession  of  a  house  on  our 
old  line  of  battle ;  and  his  head-quarter  tents  were 
brought  forward  and  pitched.  They  were  within  range 
of  a  Rebel  battery,  which  awoke  the  general  and  his 
staff  every  morning,  by  dropping  shot  and  shell  all 
about  them  for  two  or  three  hours.  Sumner  implored 
permission  to  capture  or  drive  away  the  hostile  battery, 
but  was  refused,  on  the  ground  that  it  might  bring  on  a 
general  engagement.  He  chafed  and  stormed  :  "It  is  the 
most  disgraceful  thing  of  my  life,"  he  said,  "that  this 
should  be  permitted."  But  McClellan  was  inexorable. 
Sumner  was  directed  to  remove  his  head-quarters  to  a 
safer  position.  He  persisted  in  remaining  for  fourteen 
days,  and  at  last  only  withdrew  upon  a  second  peremp 
tory  order. 

The  experience  of  that  fortnight  exhibited  the  ever- 
recurring  miracle  of  war — that  so  much  iron  and  lead 
may  fly  about  men's  ears  without  harming  them.  Dur 
ing  the  whole  bombardment  only  two  persons  were  in 
jured.  A  surgeon  was  slightly  wounded  in  the  head  by 
a  piece  of  shell  which  flew  into  his  tent ;  and  a  private, 
while  lying  behind  a  log  for  protection,  was  instantly 
killed  by  a  shot  which  tore  a  splinter  from  the  wood, 
fracturing  his  skull ;  but  not  another  man  received  even 
a  scratch. 

After  Antietam,  McClellan' s  ever-swift  apologists  as 
serted  that  his  corps  commanders  all  protested  against  re 
newing  the  attack  upon  the  second  morning.  I  asked 
General  Sumner  if  it  were  true.  He  replied,  with  em 
phasis  : — 


332  LOVE  FOR  His  OLD  COMRADES.  [ises. 

"  ISTo,  sir  !  My  advice  was  not  asked,  and  I  did  not 
volunteer  it.  But  I  was  certainly  in  favor  of  renew 
ing  the  attack.  Much  as  my  troops  had  suffered,  they 
were  good  for  another  day's  fighting,  especially  when 
the  enemy  had  that  river  in  his  rear,  and  a  defeat  would 
have  ruined  him  forever." 

At  Fredericksburg,  "by  the  express  order  of  Burn- 
side,  Sunnier  did  not  cross  the  river  during  the  fighting. 
The  precaution  saved  his  life.  Had  he  ridden  out  on  that 
fiery  front,  he  had  never  returned  to  tell  what  he  saw. 
But  he  chafed  sadly  under  the  restriction.  As  the  sun 
went  down  on  that  day  of  glorious  but  fruitless  en 
deavor,  he  paced  to  and  fro^in  front  of  the  Lacy  House, 
with  one  arm  thrown  around  the  neck  of  his  son,  his  face 
haggard  with  sorrow  and  anxiety,  and  his  eyes  straining 
eagerly  for  the  arrival  of  each  successive  messenger. 

He  was  a  man  of  high  but  patriotic  ambition.  Once, 
hearing  General  Howard  remark  that  he  did  not  aspire 
to  the  command  of  a  corps,  he  exclaimed,  "  General  you 
surprise  me.  /  would  command  the  world,  if  I  could  !" 

He  w;as  called  arbitrary,  but  had  great  love  for  his 
soldiers,  especially  for  old  companions  in  arms.  A  New 
York  colonel  told  me  a  laughable  story  of  applying  to 
him  for  a  ten  days'  furlough,  when  the  rule  against  them 
was  imperative.  Sumner  peremptorily  refused  it.  But 
the  officer  sat  down  beside  him,  and  began  to  talk  about 
the  Peninsular  campaign — the  battles  in  which  he  had 
done  his  duty,  immediately  under  Sumner' s  eye  ;  and  it 
was  not  many  minutes  before  the  general  granted  his  pe 
tition.  "If  he  had  only  waited,"  said  the  narrator, 
' '  until  I  recalled  to  his  memory  some  scenes  at  Antietam, 
I  am  sure  he  would  have  given  me  twenty  days  instead 
of  ten  !" 

His  intercourse  with  women  and  children  was  charac- 


1863.]          TRAVELING  THROUGH  THE  NORTHWEST.          333 

terized  by  peculiar  chivalry  and  gentleness.  He  revived 
the  old  ideal  of  the  soldier — terrible  in  battle,  but  with 
an  open  and  generous  heart. 

To  his  youngest  son — a  captain  upon  his  staff— he 
was  bound  by  unusual  affection.  "Sammy"  was  his 
constant  companion ;  in  private  he  leaned  upon  him, 
caressed  him,  and  consulted  him  about  the  most  trivial 
matters.  It  was  a  touching  bond  which  united  the  gray, 
war-worn  veteran  to  the  child  of  his  old  age. 

We  have  had  greater  captains  than  Sumner  ;  but  no 
better  soldiers,  no  braver  patriots.  The  words  which 
trembled  upon  his  dying  lips — "May  God  bless  my 
country,  the  United  States  of  America" — were  the  key 
note  to  his  life.  Green  be  the  turf  above  him. ! 

LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY,  April  5,  18C3. 

For  the  last  week  I  have  been  traveling  through 
the  States  of  the  Northwest.  The  tone  of  the  people  on 
the  war  was  never  better.  Now  that  the  question  has 
become  simply  one  of  endurance,  their  Northern  blood 
tells.  "This  is  hard  pounding,  gentlemen,"  said  Wel 
lington  at  Waterloo  ;  "  but  we  will  see  who  can  pound 
the  longer."  So,  in  spite  of  the  Copperheads — "merely 
the  dust  and  chaff  on  God's  thrashing-floor" — the  over 
whelming  sentiment  of  the  people  is  to  fight  it  out  to  the 
last  man  and  the  last  dollar. 

You  have  been  wont  to  say  :  "  Tne  West  can  be  de 
pended  on  for  the  war.  She  will  never  give  up  her  great 
outlet,  the  Mississippi."  True  ;  but  the  inference  that 
her  loyalty  is  based  upon  a  material  consideration,  is  un 
true  and  unjust.  The  West  has  poured  out  its  best  blood, 
not  on  any  petty  question  of  navigation,  or  of  trade,  but 
upon  the  weightier  issues  of  Freedom  and  Nationality. 

The  New-Yorker  or  Pennsylvania!!  may  believe  in 


334  A  VISIT  TO  ROSECRANS'S  ARMY.  [isea. 

the  greatness  of  the  country  ;  the  Kansan  or  Minnesotian, 
who  has  gone  one  or  two  thousand  miles  to  establish  his 
prairie  home,  walks  by  sight  and  not  by  faith.  To  him, 
the  Great  Eepublic  of  the  future  is  no  rhetorical  flourish 
or  flight  of  fancy,  but  a  living  verity.  His  instinct  of 
nationality  is  the  very  strongest ;  his  belief  the  pro- 
foundest.  May  he  never  need  Emerson' s  pungent  criti 
cism  :  "The  American  eagle  is  good  ;  protect  it,  cherish 
it ;  but  beware  of  the  American  peacock  !" 

Have  you  heard  Prentice' s  last,  upon  the  bursting  of 
the  Rebel  bubble  that  Cotton  is  King  1  He  says :  "  They 
went  in  for  cotton,  and  they  got  worsted  !" 

MURFREESBORO,  TENNESSEE,  April  10. 

A  visit  to  Rosecrans'  s  army.  I  rode  yesterday  over 
the  historical  battle-ground  of  Stone  River,  among  rifle- 
pits  and  breastworks,  great  oaks,  with  scarred  trunks, 
and  tops  and  branches  torn  off,  and  smooth  fields  thickly 
planted  with  graves. 

It  is  interesting  to  hear  from  the  soldiers  reminis 
cences  of  the  battle.  Rosecrans  may  not  be  strong  in 
planning  a  campaign,  but  the  thundering  guns  rouse  him 
to  the  exhibition  of  a  higher  military  genius  than  any 
other  general  in  our  service  has  yet  displayed.  The 
"grand  anger  of  battle"  makes  him  see  at  a  glance  the 
needs  of  the  occasion,  and  stimulates  those  quick  intui 
tions  which  enable  great  captains,  at  the  supreme  mo 
ment,  to  wrest  victory  from  the  very  grasp  of  defeat.  Pe 
culiarly  applicable  to  him  is  Addison's  description  of 
Marlborough : — 

"  In  peaceful  thought  the  field  of  death  surveyed; 
To  fainting  squadrons  sent  the  timely  aid ; 
Inspired  repulsed  battalions  to  engage, 
And  taught  the  doubtful  battle  where  to  rage." 


18G3.]  ROSECRANS    IN   A    GREAT    BATTLE.  335 

During  the  recent  great  conflict  which  began  with 
disaster  that  would  have  caused  ordinary  generals  to 
retreat,  he  seemed  omnipresent.  A  devout  Catholic,  he 
performed,  before  entering  the  battle,  the  solemn  rites  of 
his  Church.  A  profound  believer  in  destiny,  he  appeared 
like  a  man  who  sought  for  death.  A  few  feet  from  him, 
a  solid  shot  took  off  the  head  of  Garasche,  his  loved  and 
trusted  chief  of  staff. 

"  Brave  men  must  die,"  he  said,  and  plunged  into 
the  battle  again. 

He  had  a  word  for  all.  Of  an  Ohio  regiment,  lying 
upon  the  ground,  he  asked  : — 

"Boys,  do  you  see  that  strip  of  woods?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Well,  in  about  five  minutes,  the  Rebels  will  pour 
out  of  it,  and  come  right  toward  you.  Lie  still  until  you 
can  easily  see  the  buttons  on  their  coats ;  then  drive 
them  back.  Do  you  understand  ?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Well,  it's  just  as  easy  as  rolling  off  a  log,  isn't  it  f 

They  laughingly  assented,  and  "Old  Rosy,"  as  the 
soldiers  call  him,  rode  along  the  line,  to  encourage  some 
other  corps. 

This  is  an  army  of  veterans.  Every  regiment  has 
been  in  battle,  and  some  have  marched  three  thousand 
miles  during  their  checkered  campaigning.  Their  gar 
ments  are  old  and  soiled  ;  but  their  guns  are  bright  and 
glistening,  and  on  review  their  evolutions  are  clock 
work.  They  are  splendidly  disciplined,  of  unequaled  en 
thusiasm,  full  of  faith  in  their  general  and  in  themselves. 

Rosecrans  is  an  erect,  solid  man  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  pounds  weight,  whose  forty-three  years  sit 
lightly  on  his  face  and  frame.  He  has  a  clear,  mild-blue 
eye,  which  lights  and  flashes  under  excitement ;  an  in- 


336  A  SCENE  IN  MEMPHIS.  [ises 

tensified  Roman  nose,  high  cheek-bones,  florid  complex 
ion,  mouth  and  chin  hidden  under  dark-brown  beard, 
hair  faintly  tinged  with  silver,  and  growing  thin  on  the 
edges  of  the  high,  full,  but  not  broad,  forehead.  In 
conversation,  a  winning,  mirthful  smile  illumines  his 
face.  As  Hamlet  would  take  the  ghost's  word  for  a 
thousand  pounds,  so  you  would  trust  that  countenance 
in  a  stranger  as  indicating  fidelity,  reserved  power,  an 
overflowing  humor,  and  imperious  will. 

MEMPHIS,  TENNESSEE,  April  20. 

Riding  near  the  Elmwood  Cemetery,  yesterday,  I 
witnessed  a  curious  feature  of  Southern  life.  It  was  a 
negro  funeral — the  cortege,  a  third  of  a  mile  in  length, 
just  entering  that  city  of  the  dead.  The  carriages  were 
filled  with  negro  families,  and,  almost  without  exception, 
they  were  driven  by  white  men.  If  such  a  picture  were 
exhibited  in  Boston,  would  those  who  clamor  in  our 
ears  about  negro  equality  ever  permit  us  to  hear  the 
last  of  it? 


1863.]          RUNNING  THE  VICKSBURG  BATTERIES.  337 


in. 
THE    DIT 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

"We  wore  all  sen-swallowed,  though  .some  cast  again, 
And  by  that  destined  to  perform  an  act, 
"Whereof  what's  past  is  prologue. 

TEMPKST. 

ON  Sunday  evening,  May  3d,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Richard  T.  Colburn,  of  The  New  York  World,  I  reached 
Milliken's  Bend,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  twenty-five 
miles  above  Vicksburg.  Grant's  head-quarters  were  at 
Grand  Gulf,  fifty -five  miles  below  Vicksburg.  Fighting 
had  already  begun. 

We  joined  my  associate,  Mr.  Junius  H.  Browne,  of  Tlie 
Tribune,  who  for  several  days  had  been  awaiting  us. 
The  insatiate  hunger  of  the  people  for  news,  and  the 
strong  competition  between  different  journals,  made  one 
day  of  battle  worth  a  year  of  camp  or  siege  to  the  war 
correspondent.  Duty  to  the  paper  we  represented 
required  that  we  should  join  the  army  with  the  least 
possible  delay. 

We  could  go  over  land,  down  the  Louisiana  shore, 
and,  if  we  safely  ran  the  gauntlet  of  Rebel  guerrillas,' 
reach  Grand  Gulf  in  three  days.  But  a  little  expedition 
was  about  to  run  the  Vicksburg  batteries.  If  it  sur 
vived  the  fiery  ordeal,  it  would  arrive  at  G-rant's  head 
quarters  in  eight  hours.  Thus  far,  three-fourths  of  the 
boats  attempting  to  run  the  batteries  had  escaped 

destruction ;  and  yielding  to  the  seductive  doctrine  of 
22 


338  EXPEDITION  BADLY  FITTED  OUT.  [ises. 

probabilities,  we  determined  to  try  the  short,  or  water 
route.  It  proved  a  very  long  one. 

At  ten  o'clock  our  expedition  started.  It  consisted 
of  two  great  barges  of  forage  and  provisions,  propelled 
by  a  little  tug  between  them.  For  some  days,  Grant  had 
been  receiving  supplies  in  this  manner,  cheaper  and  easier 
than  by  transportation  over  rough  Louisiana  roads. 

The  lives  of  the  men  who  fitted  out  the  squadron  being 
as  valuable  to  them  as  mine  to  me,  I  supposed  that  all 
needful  precautions  for  safety  had  been  adopted.  But, 
when  under  way,  we  learned  that  they  were  altogether 
inadequate.  Indeed,  we  were  hardly  on  board  when  we 
discovered  that  the  expedition  was  so  carelessly  organ 
ized  as  almost  to  invite  capture. 

The  night  was  one  of  the  lightest  of  the  year.  We 
had. only  two  buckets,  and  not  a  single  skiff.  Two  tugs 
were  requisite  to  steer  the  unwieldy  craft,  and  enable  us 
to  run  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  With  one  we 
could  accomplish  only  seven  miles,  aided  by  the  strong 
Mississippi  current. 

There  were  thirty -five  persons  on  board — all  volun 
teers.  They  consisted  of  tlie  tug's  crew,  Captain  Ward 
and  Surgeon  Davidson  of  the  Forty -Seventh  Ohio  Infan 
try,  with  fourteen  enlisted  men,  designed  to  repel  possible 
boarders,  and  other  officers  and  citizens,  en  route  for  the 
army. 

For  two  or  three  hours,  we  glided  silently  along  the 
glassy  waters  between  banks  festooned  with  heavy, 
drooping  foliage.  It  was  a  scene  of  quiet,  surpassing 
beauty.  Captain  Ward  suddenly  remembered  that  he 
had  some  still  Catawba  in  his  valise.  He  was  instructed 
to  behead  the  bottle  with  his  sword,  that  the  wine  might 
not  in  any  event  be  wasted.  From  a  soldier' s  cup  of 
gutta-percha  we  drank  to  the  success  of  the  expedition. 


1863.]  INTO  THE  JAWS  OF  DEATH.  339 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  on  the  Mississippi 
shore,  a  rocket  shot  up  and  pierced  the  sky,  signaling 
the  Rebels  of  our  approach.  Ten  minutes  later,  we  saw 
the  flash  and  heard  the  boom  of  their  first  gun.  Much 
practice  on  similar  expeditions  had  given  them  excellent 
range.  The  shell  struck  one  of  our  barges,  and  ex 
ploded  upon  it. 

We  were  soon  under  a  heavy  fire.  The  range  of  the 
batteries  covered  the  river  for  nearly  seven  miles.  The 
Mississippi  here  is  very  crooked,  resembling  the  let 
ter  S,  and  at  some  points  we  passed  within  two  hundred 
yards  of  ten-inch  guns,  with  point-blank  range  upon  us. 
As  we  moved  around  the  bends,  the  shots  came  toward 
us  at  once  from  right  and  left,  front  and  rear. 

Inclination  had  joined  with  duty  in  impelling  us  to 
accompany  the  expedition.  We  wanted  to  learn  how 
one  would  feel  looking  into  the  craters  of  those  volca 
noes  as  they  poured  forth  sheets  of  flame  and  volleys  of 
shells.  I  ascertained  to  my  fullest  satisfaction,  as  we  lay 
among  the  hay-bales,  slowly  gliding  past  them.  I 
thought  it  might  be  a  good  thing  to  do  once,  but  that,  if 
we  survived  it,  I  should  never  feel  the  least  desire  to  re 
peat  the  experiment. 

We  embraced  the  bales  in  Bottom's  belief  that  ugood 
hay,  sweet  hay  hath  no  fellow." 

Discretion  was  largely  the  better  part  of  my  valor, 
and  I  cowered  close  in  our  partial  shelter.  But  two  or 
three  times  I  could  not  resist  the  momentary  temptation 
to  rise  and  look  about  me.  How  the  great  sheets  of 
flame  leaped  up  and  spread  out  from  the  mouths  of  the 
guns !  How  the  shells  came  screaming  and  shrieking 
through  the  air !  How  they  rattled  and  crashed,  pene 
trating  the  sides  of  the  barges,  or  exploding  on  board  in 
great  fountains  of  fire  ! 


340  A  MOMENT  OF  SUSPENSE.  [ises. 

The  moment  hardly  awakened  serene  meditations  or 
sentimental  memories ;  but  every  time  I  glanced  at  that 
picture,  Tennyson' s  lines  rang  in  my  ears  : — 

"  Cannon  to  right  of  them, 
Cannon  to  left  of  them, 
Cannon  in  front  of  them 

Volleyed  and  thundered; 
Stormed  at  by  shot  and  shell, 
Boldly  they  rode  and  well, 
Into  the  jaws  of  death, 
Into  the  mouth  of  hell 

Eode  the  six  hundred!" 

"  Junius"  persisted  in  standing,  all  exposed,  to  watch 
the  coming  shots.  Once,  as  a  shell  exploded  near  at 
hand,  he  fell  heavily  down  among  the  hay-bales.  Until 
that  moment  I  never  knew  what  suspense  was.  I  could 
find  no  voice  in  which  to  ask  if  he  lived.  I  dared  not 
put  forth  my  hand  in  the  darkness,  lest  it  should  rest  on 
his  mutilated  form.  At  last  he  spoke,  and  relieved  my 
anxiety.  He  had  only  slipped  and  fallen. 

Each  time,  after  being  struck,  we  listened  for  the  re 
assuring  puff !  puff !  puff !  of  our  little  engine  ;  and  hear 
ing  it,  said  :  "  Thus  far,  at  least,  we  are  all  right !" 

"Now  we  were  below  the  town,  having  run  five  miles 
of  batteries.  Ten  minutes  more  meant  safety.  Already 
we  began  to  felicitate  each  other  upon  our  good  fortune, 
when  the  scene  suddenly  changed. 

A  terrific  report,  like  the  explosion  of  some  vast  mag 
azine,  left  us  breathless,  and  seemed  to  shake  the  earth 
to  its  very  center.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  shriek 
which  I  shall  never  forget,  though  it  seemed  to  occupy 
less  than  a  quarter  of  the  time  consumed  by  one  tick  of 
the  watch.  It  was  the  death-cry  wrung  from  our  cap 
tain,  killed  as  he  stood  at  the  wheel.  For  his  heedless- 


1863.]          DISABLED  AND  DRIFTING  HELPLESSLY.  341 

ness  in  fitting  out  the  expedition,  his  life  was  the  pen 
alty. 

We  listened,  but  the  friendly  voice  from  the  tug  was 
hushed.  We  were  disabled,  and  drifting  helplessly  in 
front  of  the  enemy' s  guns  ! 

For  a  moment  all  was  silent.  Then  there  rose  from 
the  shore  the  shrill,  sharp,  ragged  yell  so  familiar  to 
the  ears  of  every  man  who  has  been  in  the  front,  and 
clearly  distinguishable  from  the  deep,  full,  chest-tones  in 
which  our  own  men  were  wont  to  give  their  cheers.  Many 
times  had  I  heard  that  Rebel  yell,  but  never  when  it  was 
vociferous  and  exultant  as  now. 

Seeing  fire  among  the  hay -bales  about  us,  Colburn  and 
myself  carefully  extinguished  it  with  our  gloved  hands, 
lest  the  barge  should  be  burnt.  Then,  creeping  out  of 
our  refuge,  we  discovered  the  uselessness  of  our  care. 

That  shot  had  done  wonderful  execution.  It  had 
killed  the  captain,  exploded  the  boiler,  then  passed  into 
the  furnace,  where  the  shell  itself  exploded,  throwing  up 
great  sheets  of  glowing  coals  upon  both  barges.  At 
some  stage  of  its  progress,  it  had  cut  in  twain  the  tug, 
which  went  down  like  a  plummet.  We  looked  for  it, 
but  it  had  disappeared  altogether.  There  was  some 
debris — chairs,  stools,  and  parts  of  machinery,  buoyed 
up  by  timbers,  floating  upon  the  surface  ;  but  there  was 
no  tug. 

The  barges,  covered  with  bales  of  dry  hay,  had 
caught  like  tinder,  and  now,  at  the  stern  of  each,  a  great 
sheet  of  flame  rose  far  toward  the  sky,  filling  the  night 
with  a  more  than  noonday  glare. 

Upon  the  very  highest  bale,  where  the  flames  threw 
out  his  pale  face  and  dark  clothing  in  very  sharp  relief, 
stood  "  Junius,"  in  a  careless  attitude,  looking  upon  the 
situation  with  the  utmost  serenity.  My  first  thought  was 


342     BOMBARDING,  SCALDING,  BURNING,  DROWNING. 

that  the  one  thing  he  required  to  complete  the  picture 
was  an  opera-glass.  To  my  earnest  injunction  to  leave 
that  exposed  position,  he  replied  that,  so  far  as  safety 
was  concerned,  there  now  was  little  choice  of  places. 

Meanwhile,  we  were  under  hotter  tire  than  at  any 
previous  moment.  In  the  confusion  caused  by  our  evo 
lutions  in  the  eddies,  I  had  quite  lost  the  points  the  of 
compass,  and  asked : — 

"  In  which  direction  is  Vicksburg  ?" 

"  There,"  replied  "Junius,"  pointing  out  into  the 
lurid  smoke. 

"  I  think  it  must  be  on  the  other  shore." 

"  Oh,  no  !  wait  here  a  moment,  and  you  will  see  the 
flash  of  the  guns." 

Just  then  I  did  see  the  flash  of  more  guns  than  I 
coveted,  and  four  or  five  shots  came  shrieking  toward  us. 

Colburn  and  myself  instinctively  dropped  behind  the 
nearest  hay-bales.  A  moment  after,  we  were  amused  to 
observe  that  we  had  sought  shelter  on  the  wrong  side  of 
the  bales — the  side  facing  the  Rebel  guns.  Our  barge 
was  so  constantly  changing  position  that  our  geograph 
ical  ideas  had  become  very  confused. 

It  does  not  often  happen  to  men,  in  one  quarter  of  an 
hour,  to  see  death  in  as  many  forms  as  confronted  us— 
by  bombarding,  scalding,  burning,  and  drowning.  It 
was  uncomfortable,  but  less  exciting  than  one  might 
suppose.  The  memory  impresses  me  far  more  deeply 
than  did  the  experience.  I  remember  listening,  during 
a  little  cessation  of  the  din,  for  the  sound  of  my  own 
voice,  wondering  whether  its  tones  were  calm  and 
equable.  There  was  hurrying  to  and  fro,  and  groans 
rent  the  air. 

"I  suppose  we  can  surrender,"  cried  a  poor,  scalded 
fellow. 


1863.]  TAKING  TO  A  HAY-BALE.  343 

"  Surrender — the  devil !  "  replied  Colbnrn.  "  I  sup 
pose  we  will  fight  them  !  " 

It  was  very  creditable  to  the  determination  of  our 
confrere;  but,  to  put  it  mildly,  our  lighting  facilities  just 
then  were  somewhat  limited. 

My  comrades  assisted  nearly  all  wounded  and  scalded 
men  down  the  sides  of  the  barge  to  the  water's  edge,  and 
placed  them  carefully  upon  hay -bales.  Eemaining  there, 
we  had  every  thing  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain,  and  I 
urged— 

"  Let  us  take  to  the  water.4' 

"  Oh,  yes,"  my  friends  replied,  "  we  will  after  awhile." 

Soon,  I  repeated  the  suggestion,  and  they  repeated 
the  answer.  It  was  no  time  to  stand  upon  forms.  I 
jumped  into  the  river — twelve  or  fifteen  feet  below  the 
top  of  our  barge.  They  rolled  over  a  hay-bale  for  me. 
I  climbed  upon  it,  and  found  it  a  surprisingly  comfortable 
means  of  navigation.  At  last,  free  from  the  instinctive 
dread  of  mutilation  by  splinters,  which  had  constantly 
haunted  me,  I  now  felt  that  if  wounded  at  all  it  must, 
at  least,  be  by  a  clean  shot.  The  thought  was  a  great 
relief. 

With  a  dim  suspicion — not  the  ripe  and  perfect  knowl 
edge  afterward  obtained — that  clothing  was  scarce  in 
the  Southern  Confederacy,  I  removed  my  boots,  tied 
them  together  with  my  watch-guard,  and  fastened  them 
to  one  of  the  hoops  of  the  bale.  Taking  off  my  coat,  I 
secured  it  in  the  same  manner. 

I  was  about  swimming  away  in  a  vague,  blundering 
determination  not  to  be  captured,  when,  for  the  first  time 
in  my  life,  I  saw  a  shot  coming  toward  me.  I  had  always 
been  sceptical  on  this  point.  Many  persons  had  averred 
to  me  that  they  could  see  shots  approaching  ;  but  remem 
bering  that  such  a  missile  flying  toward  a  man  with  a 


344  OVERTURNED  BY  A  SHOT.  [ises. 

scream  and  a  rush,  would  not  quicken  his  vision,  and 
judging  from  my  own  experience,  I  supposed  they  must 
"be  deceived. 

Now,  far  up  the  river  I  saw  a  shot  coming  with  vivid 
distinctness.  How  round,  smooth,  shining,  and  black  it 
looked,  ricochetting  along,  plunging  into  the  water, 
throwing  up  great  jets  of  spray,  bounding  like  a  school 
boy'  s  ball,  and  then  skimming  the  river  again !  It 
struck  about  four  feet  from  my  hay -bale,  which  was  now 
a  few  yards  from  the  burning  barge. 

The  great  sheet  of  water  which  dashed  up  quite  ob 
scured  me  from  Colburn  and  "  Junius,"  who,  upon  the 
bows  of  the  barge,  were  just  bidding  me  adieu.  At  first 
they  thought  the  shot  an  extinguisher.  But  it  did  me  no 
greater  harm  than  partially  to  overturn  my  hay-bale  and 
dip  me  into  the  river.  A  little  more  or  less  dampness 
just  then  was  not  of  much  consequence.  It  was  the  last 
shot  which  I  saw  or  heard.  The  Rebels  now  ceased 
firing,  and  shouted — 

'  c  Have  you  no  boats  ? ' 7 

Learning  that  we  had  none,  they  sent  out  a  yawl.  I 
looked  about  for  a  plank,  but  could  find  none  adapted  to 
a  long  voyage.  Rebel  pickets  were  on  both  sides  of  the 
river,  and  Rebel  batteries  lined  it  ten  or  twelve  miles  be 
low,  at  a  point  which,  by  floating,  one  could  reach  at 
daylight.  Surrender  seemed  the  only  alternative. 

At  Memphis,  two  days  before,  I  had  received  a  pack 
age  of  letters,  including  two  or  three  from  the  Tribune 
office,  and  some  which  treated  of  public  men,  and  mili 
tary  strength,  movements,  and  prospects,  with  great  free 
dom.  One  of  them,  from  Admiral  Foote,  containing  some 
very  kind  words,  I  sorely  regretted  to  lose  ;  but  the  pack 
age  was  quite  too  valuable  to  be  submitted  to  the  scru 
tiny  of  the  enemy.  I  kept  it  until  the  last  moment,  but 


lacs.]  RESCUED  FROM  THE  RIVER.  345 

when  the  Rebel  yawl  approached  within  twenty  feet,  tore 
the  letters  in  pieces  and  threw  them  into  the  Mississippi. 

The  boat  was  nearly  full.  After  picking  me  up,  it  re 
ceived  on  board  two  scalded  men  who  were  floating  near, 
and  whose  groans  were  heart-rending. 

We  were  deposited  on  the  Mississippi  shore,  under 
guard  of  four  or  live  soldiers  in  gray,  and  the  yawl  went 
back  to  receive  the  remainder.  Among  the  saved  I 
found  Surgeon  Davidson.  He  was  unable  to  swim,  but 
some  one  had  carefully  placed  him  upon  a  hay-bale.  On 
reaching  the  shore,  he  sat  down  upon  a  stool,  which  he 
had  rescued  from  the  river,  spread  his  overcoat  upon  his 
knee,  and  deposited  his  carpet-sack  beside  him.  It  was 
the  first  case  I  ever  knew  of  a  man  so  hopelessly  ship 
wrecked,  who  saved  all  his  baggage,  and  did  not  even 
wet  his  feet. 

The  boat  soon  returned.  To  my  infinite  relief,  the 
first  persons  who  sprang  to  the  shore  were  "  Junius"  and 
Colburn.  Sartorially  they  had  been  less  fortunate  than 
I.  One  had  lost  his  coat,  and  the  other  was  without 
shoes,  stockings,  coat,  vest,  or  hat. 

There,  in  the  moonlight,  guarded  by  Rebel  bayonets, 
we  counted  the  rescued,  and  found  that  just  sixteen — less 
than  half  oar  number— were  alive  and  unharmed.  All 
the  rest  were  killed,  scalded,  or  wounded. 

Some  of  the  scalded  were  piteous  spectacles.  The 
raw  flesh  seemed  almost  ready  to  drop  from  their  faces  ; 
and  they  ran  hither  and  thither,  half  wild  from  excru 
ciating  pain. 

None  of  the  wounded  were  unable  to  walk,  though 
one  or  two  had  broken  arms.  The  most  had  received 
slight  contusions,  which  a  few  days  would  heal. 

The  missing  numbered  eight  or  ten,  not  one  of  whom 
was  ever  heard  of  afterward.  It  was  impossible  to 


346          THE  KILLED,  WOUNDED,  AND  MISSING. 

obtain  any  correct  list  of  their  names,  as  several  of  them 
were  strangers  to  us  and  to  each  other ;  and  no  record 
had  "been  made  of  the  persons  starting  upon  the  expe 
dition. 

We  were   two    miles  below  the  city,  whither  the 
lieutenant  of  our  guard  now  marched  us. 


1863.]  STANDING  BY  OUR  COLORS.  347 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

It  is  not  for  prisoners  to  be  too  silent. 

LOTE'S  LABOB  LOST. 

ON  the  way,  one  of  our  party  enjoined  my  colleague 
and  myself — 

"  You  had  better  not  say  Tribune  to  the  Rebels. 
Tell  them  you  are  correspondents  of  some  less  obnoxious 
journal." 

Months  before,  I  had  asked  three  Confederate  officers 
— paroled  prisoners  within  our  lines  : — 

"  What  would  you  do  with  a  Tribune  correspondent, 
if  you  captured  him  ?' '  With  the  usual  recklessness,  two 
had  answered : — 

"  We  would  hang  him  upon  the  nearest  sapling." 

This  remembrance  was  not  cheering ;  but  as  we  were 
the  first  correspondents  of  a  radical  Northern  journal 
who  had  fallen  into  the  enemy's  hands,  after  a  moment's 
interchange  of  views,  we  decided  to  stand  by  our  colors, 
and  tell  the  plain  truth.  It  proved  much  the  wiser 
course. 

One  of  the  rescued  men,  coatless  and  hatless,  with  his 
face  blackened  until  he  looked  like  a  native  of  Timbuc- 
too,  addressed  me  familiarly.  Unable  to  recognize  him, 
I  asked  :— 

"Who  are  you?" 

"  Why,"  he  replied,  "  I  am  Captain  Ward."* 

*  Commander,  not  of  the  tug,  whose  captain  was  killed,  but  of  the  soldiers 
guarding  it  and  the  barges. 


348          CONFINEMENT  IN  THE  YICKSBURG  JAIL.         [ises 

When  tlie  explosion  occurred,  he  was  sitting  on  the 
hurricane  roof  of  the  tug.  It  was  more  exposed  than  any 
other  position,  but  the  officers  of  the  boat  had  shown 
symptoms  of  fear,  and  he  determined  to  be  where  his  re 
volver  would  enable  him  to  control  them  if  they  at 
tempted  to  desert  us. 

Some  missile  struck  his  head  and  stunned  him. 
When  he  recovered  consciousness,  the  tug  had  gone  to 
the  bottom,  and  he  was  struggling  in  the  river.  He  had 
strength  enough  to  clutch  a  rope  hanging  over  the  side  of 
a  barge,  and  keep  his  head  above  water.  Permitting  his 
sword  and  revolver,  which  greatly  weighed  him  down, 
to  sink,  he  called  to  his  men  on  the  blazing  wreck. 
Under  the  hot  fire  of  cannon  and  musketry,  they  formed 
a  rope  of  their  belts,  and  let  it  down  to  him.  He 
fastened  it  under  his  arms ;  they  lifted  him  up  to  the 
barge,  whence  he  escaped  by  the  hay-bale  line. 

At  Vicksburg,  the  commander  of  the  City  Guards 
registered  our  names. 

"I  hope,  sir,"  said  Colburn,  "that  you  will  give  us 
comfortable  quarters." 

With  a  half- surprised  expression,  the  major  replied, 
dryly  :- 

"  Oh  !  yes,  sir ;  we  will  do  the  best  we  can  for  you." 

"The  best"  proved  ludicrously  bad.  Just  before 
daylight  we  were  taken  into  the  city  jail.  Its  foul  yard 
was  half  filled  with  criminals  and  convicts,  black  and 
white,  all  dirty  and  covered  with  vermin.  In  its  midst 
was  an  open  sewer,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  in  diameter, 
the  grand  receptacle  of  all  the  prison  filth.  The  rising 
sun  of  that  sultry  morning  penetrated  its  reeking  depths, 
and  produced  the  atmosphere  of  a  pest-house. 

We  dried  our  clothing  before  a  fire  in  the  yard,  con 
versed  with  the  villainous-looking  jail-birds,  and  laughed 


lacs.]  THE  FIRST  GLIMPSE  OF  SAMBO.  349 

about  tliis  unexpected  result  of  our  adventure.  We  had 
felt  the  danger  of  wounds  or  death  ;  "but  it  had  not  oc 
curred  to  either  of  us  that  we  might  be  captured.  One  of 
the  private  soldiers  had  paid  a  dollar  for  the  privilege  of 
coming  on  the  expedition.  To  our  query  whether  he 
deemed  the  money  well  invested,  he  replied  that  he 
would  not  have  missed  the  experience  for  ten  times  the 
amount.  One  youth,  confined  in  the  jail  for  thieving, 
asked  us  the  question,  with  which  we  were  soon  to 
grow  familiar  :— 

"  What  did  you  all  come  down  here  for,  to  steal  our 
niggers  ?" 

At  noon  we  were  taken  out  and  marched  through  the 
streets.  "  Junius's"  bare  and  bleeding  feet  excited  the 
sympathy  of  a  lady,  who  immediately  sent  him  a  pair 
of  stockings,  requesting  if  ever  he  met  any  of  "our 
soldiers"  suffering  in  the  North,  that  he  would  do  as 
much  for  them.  The  donor — Mrs.  Arthur — was  a  very 
earnest  Unionist,  with  little  sympathy  for  "our  sol 
diers,"  but  used  the  phrase  as  one  of  the  habitual  sub 
terfuges  of  the  Loyalists. 

While  we  waited  in  the  office  of  the  Provost-Marshal, 
I  obtained  a  first  brief  glimpse  of  the  inevitable  negro. 
Just  outside  the  open  window,  which  extended  to  the 
floor,  stood  an  African,  with  great  shining  eyes,  express 
ing  his  sympathy  through  remarkable  grimaces  and  con 
tortions,  bowing,  scraping,  and 

"  Husking  his  white  ivories  like  an  ear  of  corn." 

Rebel  citizens  and  soldiers  were  all  about  him  ;  and, 
somewhat  alarmed,  I  indicated  by  a  look  that  he  should 
be  a  little  less  demonstrative.  But  Sambo,  as  usual, 
knew  what  he  was  doing (  and  was  not  detected. 

The  Provost-Marshal,  Captain  Wells,  of  the  Twenty- 


350  PAROLED  TO  RETURN  HOME. 

eighth  Louisiana  Infantry,  courteously  assigned  to  us  the 
upper  story  of  the  court-house,  posting  a  sentinel  at  the 
door. 

Major  Watts,  the  Rebel  Agent  of  Exchange,  called 
upon  us  and  administered  the  following  parole  :— 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

VICKSBURG,  MISSISSIPPI,  May  4, 1S63. 

This  is  to  certify,  that  in  accordance  with  a  Cartel  in  regard  to  an 
exchange  of  prisoners  entered  into  between  the  Governments  of  the 
United  States  of  America  and  the  Confederate  States  of  America,  on 
the  22d  day  of  July,  1862,  Albert  D.  Richardson,  citizen  of  New  York, 
who  was  captured  on  the  4th  day  of  May,  at  Yicksburg,  and  has 
since  been  held  as  a  prisoner  of  war  by  the  military  authorities  of  the 
said  Confederate  States,  is  hereby  paroled,  with  full  leave  to  return  to  Ms 
country  on  the  following  conditions,  namely :  that  he  will  not  take  up 
arms  again,  nor  serve  as  military  police  or  constabulary  force  in  any 
fort,  garrison,  or  field-work,  held  by  either  of  said  parties,  nor  as  a  guard 
of  prisoners,  depots,  or  stores,  nor  discharge  any  duty  usually  performed 
by  soldiers,  until  exchanged  under  the  Cartel  referred  to.  The  afore 
said  Albert  D.  Richardson  signifying  his  full  and  free  consent  to  said 
conditions  by  his  signature  hereto,  thereby  solemnly  pledges  his  word 
and  honor  to  a  due  observance  of  the  same. 

ALBERT  D.  RICHARDSON. 
N.  G.  WATTS, 
Major  Confederate  States  Army,  and  Agent  for  Exchange  of  Prisoners. 

This  parole  was  regular,  formal,  and  final,  taken  at  a 
regular  point  of  exchange,  by  an  officer  duly  appointed 
under  the  express  provisions  of  the  cartel.  Major  AVatts 
informed  us  that  he  was  prevented  from  sending  us  across 
the  lines  at  Vickslburg,  only  because  Grant's  operations 
had  suspended  flag-of-truce  communication.  He  as 
sured  us,  that  while  he  was  thus  compelled  to  forward 
us  to  Richmond,  the  only  other  point  of  exchange,  we 
should  not  "be  detained  there  beyond  the  arrival  of  the 
first  truce-boat. 


1863.]  TURNING  THE  TABLES  HANDSOMELY.  351 

These  formalities  ended,  the  major,  who  was  a  polite, 
kind-hearted,  rather  pompous  little  officer,  made  an  at 
tempt  at  condolence  and  consolation. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  with  a  good  deal  of  self-com 
placency,  ' '  you  are  a  long  way  from  home.  However, 
do  not  despond  ;  I  have  met  a  great  many  of  your  people 
in  this  condition ;  I  have  paroled  some  thousands  of 
them,  first  and  last.  In  fact,  I  confidently  expect,  with 
in  the  next  ten  days,  to  see  Major- General  Grant,  who 
commands  your  army,  a  prisoner  in  this  room." 

We  knew  something  about  that !  Of  course,  we  were 
familiar  with  the  size  of  Grant' s  army ;  and,  before  we 
had  been  many  hours  in  the  Rebel  lines,  we  found 
Union  people  who  told  us  minutely  the  strength  of 
Pemberton.  So  we  replied  to  the  prophet,  that,  while 
we  had  no  sort  of  doubt  of  his  seeing  General  Grant 
there,  it  would  not  be  exactly  in  the  capacity  of  a 
prisoner ! 

Colburn — who  had  the  good  fortune,  for  that  occasion, 
to  be  attached  to  The  World,  and  who,  on  reaching 
Richmond,  was  sent  home  by  the  first  truce-boat — came 
back  to  Vicksburg  in  season  to  be  in  at  the  death.  One 
of  the  first  men  he  met,  after  the  capture  of  the  city,  was 
Watts,  to  whom  he  rehearsed  this  little  scene,  with  the 
characters  reversed. 

"  Major,"  said  he,  with  dry  humor,  "you  are  a  long 
distance  from  home  !  But  do  not  despond  ;  I  have  seen 
a  good  many  of  your  people  in  this  condition.  In  fact, 
I  believe  there  are  about  thirty  thousand  of  them  here 
to-day,  including  Lieutenant- General  Pemberton,  who 
commands  your  army." 

We  stayed  in  Vicksburg  two  days.  Our  noisy  advent 
made  us  objects  of  attention.  Several  Rebel  journalists 
visited  us,  with  tenders  of  clothing,  money,  and  any  as- 


352  VISITS  FROM  MANY  REBELS.  [ises. 

sistance  they  could  render.  Confederate  officers  and 
citizens  called  in  large  numbers,  inquiring  eagerly  about 
the  condition  of  the  North,  and  the  public  feeling  touch 
ing  the  war. 

Some  complained  that  Northern  officers,  while  in 
confinement,  had  said  to  them  :  * i  While  we  are  in  favor 
of  the  Union,  we  disapprove  altogether  the  war  as  con 
ducted  by  this  Abolition  Administration,  with  its  tenden 
cies  to  negro  equality;"  but  that,  after  reaching  home, 
the  same  persons  were  peculiarly  radical  and  blood 
thirsty. 

As  political  affairs  were  the  only  topic  of  conversa 
tion,  we  had  excellent  opportunity  for  preventing  any 
similar  misunderstanding  touching  ourselves.  Courte 
ously,  but  frankly,  we  told  them  that  we  were  in  favor 
of  the  war,  of  emancipation,  and  of  arming  the  negroes. 
They  manifested  considerable  feeling,  but  used  no  harsh 
expressions.  Two  questions  they  invariably  asked  : — 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  us,  after  you  have 
subjugated  us  ?"  and,  "  What  will  you  do  with  the  ne 
groes,  after  you  have  freed  them  ?" 

They  talked  much  of  our  leading  officers,  all  seem 
ing  to  consider  Rosecrans  the  best  general  in  the  Union 
service.  Nearly  all  used  the  stereotyped  Rebel  expres 
sion  : — 

"  You  can  never  conquer  seven  millions  of  people  on 
their  own  soil.  We  will  fight  to  the  last  man  !  We  will 
die  in  the  last  ditch  !  " 

We  reminded  them  that  the  determination  they  ex 
pressed  was  by  no  means  peculiar  to  them,  referring 
to  Bancroft,  in  proof  that  even  the  Indian  tribes,  at  war 
with  the  early  settlers  of  New  England,  used  exactly  the 
same  language.  We  asked  one  Texan  colonel,  noticeably 
voluble  concerning  the  "last  ditch,"  what  he  meant  by 


1863.]  INTERVIEW  WITH  JACOB  THOMPSON.  353 

it — if  he  really  intended  to  fight  after  their  armies  should 
be  dispersed  and  their  cities  taken. 

"  Oh,  no  !  "  he  replied,  "  you  don't  suppose  I'm  a  fool, 
do  you  ?  As  long  as  there  is  any  show  for  us,  we  shall 
fight  you.  If  you  win,  most  of  us  will  go  to  South 
America,  Mexico,  or  Europe." 

On  Monday  evening,  Major- General  Forney,  of  Ala 
bama,  sent  an  officer  to  escort  us  to  his  head-quarters.  He 
received  us  with  great  frigidity,  and  we  endeavored  to 
be  quite  as  icy  as  he.  With  some  of  his  staif  officers, 
genial  young  fellows  educated  in  the  North,  we  had  a 
pleasant  chat. 

Jacob  Thompson,  of  Mississippi,  Buchanan's  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior,  and  now  a  colonel  on  the  staff  of 
Lieutenant- General  Pemberton,  was  at  the  same  head 
quarters.  With  the  suavity  of  an  old  politician,  he  con 
versed  with  us  for  two  or  three  hours.  He  asserted  that 
some  of  our  soldiers  had  treated  his  aged  mother  with 
great  cruelty.  He  declared  that  Northern  dungeons  now 
contained  at  least  three  thousand  inoffensive  Southern 
citizens,  who  had  never  taken  up  arms,  and  were  held 
only  for  alleged  disloyalty. 

Many  other  Rebel  officers  talked  a  great  deal  about 
arbitrary  arrests  in  the  North.  Several  gravely  assured  us 
that,  in  the  South,  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  no 
citizen  had  ever  been  arrested,  except  by  due  process  of 
law,  under  charges  well  defined,  and  publicly  made.  We 
were  a  little  astounded,  afterward,  to  learn  how  utterly 
bare-faced  was  this  falsehood. 

On  Tuesday  evening  we  started  for  Jackson,  Missis 
sippi,  in  company  with  forty  other  Union  prisoners. 
They  were  mainly  from  Ohio  regiments,  young  in  years, 
but  veteran  soldiers — farmers'  sons,  with  intelligent,  earn 
est  faces.  Pemberton' s  army  was  in  motion.  Our  train 

23 


354  ARRIVAL  IN  JACKSON,  MISSISSIPPI.  [ises. 

passed  slowly  through  his  camps,  and  halted  half  an 
hour  at  several  points,  among  crowds  of  Rebel  privates. 

The  Ohio  boys  and  their  guards  were  on  the  best  pos 
sible  terms,  drinking  whisky  and  playing  euchre  to 
gether.  The  former  indulged  in  a  good  deal  of  verbal 
skirmishing  with  the  soldiers  outside,  thrusting  their 
heads  from  the  car  windows  and  shouting  : — 

"  Look  out,  Rebs  !  The  Yankees  are  coming  !  Keep 
on  marching,  if  you  don't  want  old  Grant  to  catch  you  !" 

"How  are  times  in  the  North ? "  the  Confederates  re 
plied.  "  Cotton  a  dollar  and  twenty -five  cents  a  pound 
in  New  York!" 

"How  are  times  in  the  South?  Flour  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  dollars  a  barrel  in  Yicksburg,  and  none 
to  be  had  at  that!" 

After  waiting  vainly  for  an  answer  to  this  quenching 
retort,  the  Buckeyes  sang  "Yankee  Doodle,"  the  "  Star- 
Spangled  Banner,"  and  "John  Brown's  Body  lies  a- 
nioldering  in  the  Ground,"  for  the  edification  of  their 
bewildered  foes. 

Before  dark,  we  reached  Jackson.  Though  a  prison 
er,  I  entered  it  with  far  more  pleasurable  feelings  than  at 
my  last  visit ;  for  my  tongue  was  now  free,  and  I  was 
not  sailing  under  false  colors.  The  dreary  little  city  was 
in  a  great  panic.  Before  we  had  been  five  minutes  in  the 
street,  a  precocious  young  newsboy  came  running  among 
us,  and,  while  shouting — "Here's  The  Mississippian 
extra !"  talked  to  us  incessantly  in  a  low  tone : — 

"How  are  you,  Yanks  ?  You  have  come  in  a  capital 
time.  Greatest  panic  you  ever  saw.  Everybody  flying 
out  of  town.  Governor  Pettus  issued  a  proclamation, 
telling  the  people  to  stand  firm,  and  then  ran  away  him 
self  before  the  ink  was  dry." 

We  remained  in  Jackson  three  days.    Upon  parole. 


1863.]  KINDNESS  FROM  SOUTHERN  EDITORS.  355 

we  were  allowed  to  take  our  meals  at  a  boarding-house 
several  squares  from  the  prison,  and  to  visit  the  office 
of  Tlie  Appeal.  This  journal,  originally  published  at 
Memphis,  was  removed  to  Grenada  upon  the  approach 
of  our  forces  ;  Grenada  being  threatened,  it  was  trans 
ferred  to  Jackson ;  thence  to  Atlanta,  and  finally  to 
Montgomery,  Alabama.  It  was  emphatically  a  moving 
Appeal. 

Its  editors  very  kindly  supplied  us  with  clothing  and 
money.  They  seemed  to  be  sick  of  the  war,  and  to  retain 
little  faith  in  the  Rebel  cause,  for  which  they  had  sacri 
ficed  so  much,  abandoning  property  in  Memphis  to  the 
amount  of  thirty  thousand  dollars.  They  now  published 
the  most  enterprising  and  readable  newspaper  in  the 
South.  It  was  noticeably  free  from  vituperation,  calling 
the  President  "Mr.  Lincoln,"  instead  of  the  "Illinois 
Baboon,"  and  characterizing  us  not  as  Yankee  scoun 
drels,  but  as  "unwilling  guests" — 

"  Gentlemen  who  attempted  to  run  the  batteries  on  Sunday  night, 
and  after  escaping  death  from  shot  and  shell,  from  being  scalded  by  the 
rushing  steam,  from  roasting  by  the  lively  flames  that  enveloped  their 
craft,  were  found  in  the  river  by  a  rescuing  party,  each  clinging  tena 
ciously  to  a  bale  of  hay  for  safety." 

Grant's  army  was  moving  toward  Jackson.  We 
longed  for  his  approach,  straining  our  ears  for  the  boom 
ing  of  his  guns.  The  Rebels,  in  their  usual  strain,  de 
clared  that  the  city  could  not  be  captured,  and  would  be 
defended  to  the  last  drop  of  blood.  But  on  the  night 
before  our  departure,  we  were  confidentially  told  that 
the  Federal  advance  was  already  within  twenty-five 
miles,  and  certain  to  take  the  town. 

With  forty -five  unarmed  prisoners,  we  were  placed 
on  an  ammunition  train,  which  had  not  more  than  a 


356  A  PROJECT  FOR  ESCAPE. 

dozen  guards.  The  privates  begged  Captain  Ward  to 
lead  them,  and  permit  them  to  capture  the  train.  We 
all  deemed  the  project  feasible.  Ten  minutes  would 
suffice  to  blow  up  the  cars.  With  twelve  guns,  we 
could  easily  march  twenty  miles  through  those  sparse 
settlements  to  Grant's  forces. 

But  there  were  our  paroles !  A  careful  reading  con 
vinced  us  that  if  we  failed  in  the  attempt,  the  enemy 
would  be  justified,  under  the  laws  of  war,  in  punishing 
us  with  death ;  and,  after  much  debate,  we  abandoned 
the  project. 

Kebel  officers  in  Yicksburg  had  assured  us  that 
crossing  the  Confederacy  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Atlantic,  upon  the  Southern  railroads,  was  a  more^haz- 
ardous  undertaking  than  running  the  river  batteries. 
The  rolling  stock  was  in  wretched  condition,  and  fatal 
accidents  frequently  occurred  ;  but  we  traveled  at  a 
leisurely,  old-fashioned  rate,  averaging  eight  miles  per 
hour,  making  long  stops,  and  seldom  running  by  night. 


1863.]  A  WOKD   WITH    A    UNION  WOMAN.  357 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

A  kind  of  excellent,  dumb  discourse.— TEMPEST. 

IT  did  not  require  many  days  of  captivity  to  teach  us 
the  infinite  expressiveness  and  trustworthiness  of  the 
human  eye.  We  "began  to  recognize  Union  people  "by 
their  friendly  look  "before  they  spoke  a  word. 

Our  train  stopped  for  dinner  at  a  secluded  Mississippi 
tavern.  At  the  door  of  the  long  dining-room  stood  the 
landlady,  an  intelligent  woman  of  a"bout  thirty-five.  "When 
I  handed  her  a  twenty-dollar  Rebel  note,  she  inquired — 

"  Have  you  nothing  smaller  than  this  ? " 

"No  Confederate  money,"  I  answered. 

"  State  currency  will  answer  just  as  well." 

"  I  have  none  of  that — nothing  but  this  bill  and  United 
States  Treasury  Notes." 

The  indifferent  face  instantly  kindled  into  friendliness 
and  sympathy. 

"  Are  you  one  of  the  prisoners  ? " 

"Yes,  madam." 

"  Just  from  Vicksburg  ? " 

"Yes." 

"  What  do  you  think  of  the  prospect  ? " 

"  Grant  is  certain  to  capture  the  city." 

"Of  course  he  will"  (with  great  earnestness),  "if  he 
only  tries !  The  force  there  is  incapable  of  resisting 
him." 

Other  passengers  coming  within  hearing,  I  moved 


358  GRIERSON'S  GREAT  MISSISSIPPI  RAID.          [isea 

away,  but  I  would  unhesitatingly  have  trusted  that  wo 
man  with  my  liberty  or  my  life. 

Grierson's  raid,  then  in  progress,  was  the  universal 
theme  of  conversation  and  wonder.  That  dashing  cava 
lier,  selecting  his  route  with  excellent  judgment,  evaded 
all  the  large  forces  which  opposed  him,  and  defeated  all 
the  small  ones,  while  he  rode  leisurely  the  entire  length 
of  Mississippi,  tearing  up  railroads  and  burning  bridges. 
Occasionally  he  addressed  the  people  in  humorous 
harangues.  To  one  old  lady,  who  tremblingly  begged 
that  her  property  might  riot  be  destroyed,  he  replied  :— 

"  You  shall  certainly  be  protected,  madam.  It  is  not 
my  object  to  hurt  any  body.  It  is  not  generally  known, 
but  the  truth  is,  I  am  a  candidate  for  Governor,  and  am 
stumping  the  State." 

Our  slow  progress  enabled  us  to  converse  much  with 
the  people,  constantly  preaching  to  them  the  gospel  of 
the  Union.  But  they  had  so  long  heard  only  the  gospel 
according  to  Jefferson  Davis,  that  they  paid  little  heed  to 
our  threatenings  of  the  judgment  which  was  certain  to 
come. 

In  the  dense  woods  which  the  railways  traversed,  the 
pine,  the  palm  and  the  magnolia,  grew  side  by  side,  fes 
tooned  with  long,  hairy  tufts  of  Spanish  moss.  On  the 
plantations,  the  young  cotton,  three  inches  high,  looked 
like  sprouting  beans. 

Colburn's  solemn  waggery  was  constantly  cropping 
out.  In  our  car  one  day  he  had  a  long  discussion  with 
a  brawny  Texan  officer,  who  declared  with  great  bitter 
ness  that  he  had  assisted  in  hanging  three  Abolitionists 
upon  a  single  blackjack,*  in  sight  of  his  own  door.  He 
concluded  with  the  usual  assertion  :— 

*  A  species  of  Southern  oak. 


1863.]  AN  ENRAGED  TEXAN  OFFICER.  359 

"  We  will  fight  to  the  last  man  !  We  will  die  in  the 
last  ditch!" 

"Well,  sir,"  replied  Colburn,  with  the  utmost  grav 
ity,  "if  you  should  do  that  and  all  be  killed,  we  should 
regret  it  extremely  ! ' ' 

Like  most  Southerners,  the  Texan  was  insensible  to 
satire.  Understanding  this  to  be  perfectly  sincere,  he 
reiterated : — 

"  We  shall  do  it,  sir !    We  shall  do  it  I " 

"  "Well,  sir,  as  I  said  before,  if  you  do,  and  all  happen 
to  get  killed,  including  the  very  last  man  himself,  of 
course  we  of  the  North  shall  be  quite  heart-broken  !" 

Once  comprehended,  the  mock  condolence  enraged 
the  huge  Texan  fearfully.  For  a  few  seconds  his  eyes 
were  the  most  wicked  I  ever  saw.  He  looked  ready  to 
spring  upon  Colburn  and  tear  him  in  pieces  ;  but  it  was 
the  last  we  heard  of  his  bravado. 

One  of  our  fellow-prisoners  had  manifested  great  trepi 
dation  while  we  lay  disabled  in  front  of  Vicksburg.  He 
was  probably  no  more  frightened  than  the  rest  of  us,  but 
had  less  self-control,  running  to  and  fro  on  the  burning 
barge,  wringing  his  hands,  and  shrieking:  "My  Grod ! 
my  God !  We  shall  all  be  killed ! ' ' 

Three  or  four  days  later,  Colburn  asked  him' — 

"Were  you  ever  under  fire  before  Sunday  night  ?" 

"Never,"  he  replied,  with  uneasy,  questioning 
looks. 

"Well,  sir,"  solemnly  continued  the  satirist,  "I 
think,  in  view  of  that  fact,  that  you  behaved  with  more 
coolness  than  any  man  I  ever  saw  ! ' ' 

While  we  preserved  our  gravity  with  the  utmost  diffi 
culty,  the  victim  scrutinized  his  tormentor  very  suspi 
ciously.  But  that  serious,  immovable  face  told  no  tales, 
and  he  finally  received  the  compliment  as  serious.  From 


360  WAGGERY  OF  A  CAPTURED  SCRIBE.  [ISGS. 

that  time,  it  was  Colburn'  s  daily  delight,  to  remark,  with 
ever-increasing  admiration : — 

"Mr.  -  — ,  I  cannot  help  remembering  how  mar- 
yelously  self-possessed  you  were  during  those  exciting 
minutes.  I  never  saw  your  coolness  equaled  by  a  man 
under  fire  for  the  first  time." 

Before  we  reached  Richmond,  the  new-fledged  hero 
received  his  praises  with  complacent  and  serene  conde 
scension.  He  will,  doubtless,  tell  his  children  and  grand 
children  of  the  encomium  his  courage  won  from  com 
panions,  who,  "born  and  nursed  in  Danger's  path,  had 
dared  her  worst." 

At  Demopolis,  Alabama,  we  encountered  a  planter  re 
moving  from  Mississippi,  where  Grierson  and  Grant  were 
rapidly  depreciating  slave  property.  He  had  with  him  a 
long  gang  of  negroes,  some  chained  together  in  pairs,  with 
handcuffs  riveted  to  their  wrists. 

While  the  train  stopped,  a  young  fellow  from  Ken 
tucky,  captain  and  commissary  in  the  Confederate  army, 
took  me  up  to  his  room,  on  pretext  of  "  a  quiet  drink." 

"  When  I  went  into  the  war,"  said  he,  "  I  thought  it 
would  be  a  nice  little  diversion  of  about  two  weeks,  with 
a  good  deal  of  fun  and  no  fighting.  Now,  I  would  give 
my  right  arm  to  escape  from  it ;  but  there  is  no  such  good 
fortune  for  me.  When  you  reach  the  North,  write  to  my 
friends  at  home,  giving  them  my  love,  and  saying  that 
I  wish  I  had  followed  their  advice." 

A  benevolent  lady  was  at  the  station,  with  her  car 
riage,  distributing  cakes  among  the  Rebel  soldiers  and 
the  Union  prisoners. 

At  Selma,  a  new  officer  took  charge  of  our  party. 
The  post  commandant  instructed  him  how  to  treat  the 
privates,  and,  pointing  to  the  two  officers  and  the  three 
journalists,  added :— 


lacs.]       THE  ALABAMA  RIVER  AND  MONTGOMERY.        361 

"  Yon  will  consider  these  gentlemen  not  under  your 
guard,  "but  under  your  escort." 

We  took  a  steamer  up  the  Alabama  River.  As  we  sat 
looking  out  upon  the  beautiful  stream,  it  was  amusing  to 
hear  the  comments  of  the  negro  chamber-maids : — 

"  How  mean  the  Southern  soldiers  look  !  But  just  see 
those  Yankees  !  Anybody  might  know  that  they  are 
God's  own  people  !" 

The  pilot  of  the  boat,  a  native  Alabamian,  took  me 
aside,  stating  that  he  was  an  unconditional  Union  man, 
and  inquiring  eagerly  about  the  North,  which,  he  feared, 
might  abandon  the  contest. 

We  spent  Sunday,  May  llth,  in  the  pleasant  city  of 
Montgomery :  strolling  at  pleasure  through  the  shaded 
streets,  and  at  evening  taking  a  bath  in  the  Alabama, 
swimming  round  a  huge  Rebel  ram,  then  nearly  com 
pleted.  We  gained  some  knowledge  of  its  character  and 
dimensions,  which,  after  reaching  Richmond,  we  suc 
ceeded  in  transmitting  to  the  Government. 

The  officer  in  charge  of  our  party  spent  the  night  in 
camp  with  his  men,  but  we  slept  at  the  Exchange  Hotel. 
When  we  registered  our  names,  the  bystanders,  with 
their  broad-brimmed  hats,  long  pipes,  and  heavy  South 
ern  faces,  manifested  a  good  deal  of  curiosity  to  see  what 
they  termed  "two  of  old  Greeley's  correspondents." 
They  asked  us  many  questions  of  the  North,  and  of  our 
army  experiences.  Several  said  emphatically  that,  ere 
long,  the  people  would  "  take  this  thing  out  of  the  hands 
of  politicians,  and  settle  it  themselves." 

Reaching  Atlanta,  we  were-  placed  in  the  filthy,  ver 
min-infested  military  prison.  Encouraged  by  the  cour 
tesies  we  had  received  from  Rebel  journals,  we  sent, 
through  the  commandant,  a  card  to  one  of  the  newspaper 
x  offices,  asking  for  a  few  exchanges.  The  blundering 


362      ATLANTA  EDITORS  ADVOCATE  HANGING  Us.      [iscs. 

messenger  took  it  to  the  wrong  establishment,  leaving  it 
at  the  office  of  an  intensely  bitter  sheet  called  The  Con- 
federate.  The  next  morning  we  were  not  allowed  to 
purchase  newspapers.  Learning  that  The  Confederate 
commented  upon  our  request,  we  induced  an  attache  of 
the  prison  to  smuggle  a  copy  to  us,  and  found  the  follow 
ing  leader : — 

"Last  evening  some  correspondents  of  The  New  York  World  and 
New  York  Tribune  were  brought  here  among  a  batch  of  prisoners  cap 
tured  at  Vicksburg  a  few  days  ago.  They  had  not  been  here  a  half  hour 
before  the  impudent  scamps  got  one  of  the  sentinels  guarding  the  bar 
racks  to  go  around  to  the  newspaper  offices  in  this  city  with  their 
'card,'  requesting  the  favor  of  some  exchange-papers  to  read.  Their 
impudence  is  beyond  comprehension,  upon  any  other  consideration  than 
that  they  belong  to  the  Yankee  press-gang.  Yankees  are  everywhere 
more  impudent  than  any  honest  race  of  people  can  be,  and  a  Yankee 
newspaper-man  is  the  quintessence  of  all  impudence.  We  thought  we 
had  seen  and  understood  something  of  this  Yankee  accomplishment  in 
times  gone  by  (some  specimens  of  it  have  been  seen  in  the  South) ;  but 
the  unheard-of  effrontery  that  prompted  these  villains,  who,  caught  in 
company  with  the  thieving,  murdering  vandals  who  have  invaded  our 
country,  despoiled  our  homes,  murdered  our  citizens,  destroyed  our 
property,  violated  our  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters,  to  boldly  claim  of 
the  press  of  the  South  the  courtesies  and  civilities  which  gentlemen  of 
the  press  usually  extend  to  each  other,  is  above  and  beyond  all  the  un 
blushing  audacity  we  ever  imagined.  They  had  come  along  with  North 
ern  vandals,  to  chronicle  their  rapes,  arsons,  plunders,  and  murders,  and 
to  herald  them  to  the  world  as  deeds  of  heroism,  greatness,  and  glory. 
They  are  our  vilest  and  most  unprincipled  enemies — far  more  deeply 
steeped  in  guilt,  and  far  more  richly  deserving  death,  than  the  vilest  van 
dal  that  ever  invaded  the  sanctity  of  our  soil  and  outraged  our  homes 
and  our  peace.  We  would  greatly  prefer  to  assist  in  hanging  these 
enemies  to  humanity,  than  to  show  them  any  civilities  or  courtesies. 
The  common  robber,  thief,  and  murderer,  is  more  respectable,  in  our  esti 
mation,  than  these  men ;  for  he  never  tries  to  make  his  crimes  respect 
able,  but  always  to  conceal  them.  These  men,  however,  have  come 
into  our  country  with  the  open  robbers  and  murderers  of  our  people,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  whitewashing  their  hellish  deeds,  and  presenting 


1863.]  A  PAIR  OF  RENEGADE  YERMONTERS.  363 

them  to  the  world  as  great  deeds  of  virtuous  heroism.  They  deserve  a 
rope's  end,  and  will  not  receive  their  just  deserts  till  their  crimes  are 
punished  with  death." 

The  Rebel  authorities  were  very  sensitive  to  news 
paper  censure.  With  unusual  rigor,  they  now  refused 
us  permission  to  go  outside  the  prison  for  meals,  though 
offering  to  have  them  sent  in,  at  our  expense,  from  the 
leading  hotel.  They  told  us  that  TJie  Confederate  was 
edited  by  two  renegade  Vermonters. 

"I  am  not  very  fond  of  Yankees,  myself,"  remarked 
Hunnicutt,  the  heavy -jawed,  broad-necked,  coarse-feat 
ured  lieutenant  commanding  the  prison.  "  I  am  as  much 
in  favor  of  hanging  them  as  anybody ;  but  these  Ver 
monters,  who  haven't  been  here  six  months,  are  a  little 
too  violent.  They  don't  own  any  niggers.  'Tisn't  natu 
ral.  There's  something  wrong  about  them.  If  I  were 
going  to  hang  Yankees  at  -a  venture,  I  think  I  would 
begin  with  them." 

An  Irish  warden  brought  us,  from  a  Jew  outside,  three 
hundred  Confederate  dollars,  in  exchange  for  one  hun 
dred  in  United  States  currency.  For  a  fifty-dollar  Rebel 
note  he  procured  me  a  cap  of  southern  manufacture,  to 
replace  my  hat,  which  had  been  snatched  from  my  head 
by  a  South  Carolina  officer,  passing  upon  a  railroad  train 
meeting  our  own.  The  new  cap,  of  grayish  cotton,  a 
marvel  of  roughness  and  ugliness,  elicited  roars  of  laugh 
ter  from  my  comrades. 

On  the  journey  thus  far,  we  had  gon^  almost  wherever 
we  pleased,  unguarded  and  unaccompanied.  But  from 
Atlanta  to  Richmond  we  were  treated  with  rigor  and  very 
closely  watched.  A  Rebel  officer  begged  of  "Junius" 
his  fine  pearl-handled  pocket  knife.  Receiving  it,  he  at 
once  conceived  an  affection  for  a  gold  ring  upon  the  pris 
oner'  s  finger.  Even  the  courtesy  of  my  colleague  was  not 


364  TREATED  WITH  UNUSUAL  RIGOR.  [isea. 

proof  against  this  second  impertinence,  and  he  contempt 
uously  declined  the  request. 

The  captain  in  charge  of  us  stated  that  his  orders 
were  imperative  to  keep  all  newspapers  from  us  ;  and 
on  no  account  to  permit  us  to  leave  the  railway  carriage. 
But,  finding  that  we  still  obtained  the  daily  journals 
from  fellow-passengers,  he  made  a  virtue  of  necessity, 
and  gracefully  acquiesced.  At  last,  he  even  allowed  us 
to  take  our  meals  at  the  station,  upon  being  invited  to 
participate  in  them  at  the  expense  of  his  prisoners. 


1863.]  ARRIVAL  IN  RICHMOND.  365 


CHAPTER    XXXI 


•  Give  me  to  drink  mandragora, 


That  I  may  sleep  out  this  great  gap  of  time. 

ANTONY  AND  CLEOPATRA. 

AT  5  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  May  16th, 
we  reached  Richmond.  At  that  early  hour,  the  clothing- 
depot  of  the  Confederate  government  was  surrounded  Iby 
a  crowd  of  poor,  ill- clad  women,  seeking  work. 

We  were  marched  to  the  Libby  Prison.  Up  to  this 
time  we  had  never  been  searched.  I  had  even  kept  my 
revolver  in  my  pocket  until  reaching  Jackson,  Missis 
sippi,  where,  knowing  I  could  not  much  longer  conceal 
it,  I  gave  it  to  a  friend.  Now  a  Rebel  sergeant  carefully 
examined  our  clothing.  All  money,  except  a  few  dol 
lars,  was  taken  from  us,  and  the  flippant  little  prison 
clerk,  named  Ross,  with  some  inquiries  not  altogether 
affectionate  concerning  the  health  of  Mr.  Greeley,  gave 
us  receipts. 

As  we  passed  through  the  guarded  iron  gateway,  I 
glanced  instinctively  above  the  portal  in  search  of  its 
fitting  legend : — 

44  Abandon  all  hope  who  enter  here." 

Up  three  flights  of  stairs,  we  were  escorted  into  a 
room,  fifty  feet  by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five,  filled 
with  officers  lying  in  blankets  upon  the  floor  and  upon 
rude  bunks.  Some  shouted,  "  More  Yankees! — more 
Yankees !"  while  many  crowded  about  us  to  hear  our 
story,  and  learn  the  news  from  the  West. 


366  INCARCERATED  IN  LIBBY  PRISON.  [ises. 

We  soon  found  friends,  and  became  domesticated  in 
our  novel  quarters.  With  the  American  tendency  to 
ward  organization,  the  prisoners  divided  into  companies 
of  four  each.  Our  journalistic  trio  and  Captain  Ward 
ceased  to  be  individuals,  becoming  merely  "Mess  Num 
ber  Twenty-one." 

The  provisions,  at  this  time  consisting  of  good  flour, 
bread,  and  salt  pork,  were  brought  into  the  room  in  bulk. 
A  commissary,  elected  by  the  captives  from  their  own 
number,  divided  them,  delivering  its  quota  to  each  mess. 

Picking  up  two  or  three  rusty  tin  plates  and  rheu 
matic  knives  and  forks,  we  commenced  housekeeping. 
The  labor  of  preparation  was  not  arduous.  It  consisted 
in  making  little  sacks  of  cotton  cloth  for  salt,  sugar,  pep 
per,  and  rice,  fitting  up  a  shelf  for  our  dishes,  and  spread 
ing  upon  the  floor  blankets,  obtained  from  our  new 
comrades,  and  originally  sent  to  Richmond  by  the  United 
States  Government  for  the  benefit  of  prisoners. 

The  Libby  authorities,  and  white  and  negro  attaches, 
were  always  hungry  for  "greenbacks,"  and  glad  to  give 
Confederate  currency  in  exchange.  The  rates  varied 
greatly.  The  lowest  was  two  dollars  for  one.  During 
my  imprisonment,  I  bought  fourteen  for  one,  and,  a  few 
weeks  after  our  escape,  thirty  were  given  for  one. 

A  prison  sergeant  went  out  every  morning  to  purchase 
supplies.  He  seemed  honest,  and  through  him  we  could 
obtain,  at  extravagant  prices,  dried  apples,  sugar,  eggs, 
molasses,  meal,  flour,  and  corn  burnt  and  ground  as  a 
substitute  for  coffee.  Without  these  additions,  our  ra 
tions  would  hardly  have  supported  life. 

In  our  mess,  each  man,  in  turn,  did  the  cooking  for 
an  entire  day.  In  that  hot,  stifling  room,  frying  pork, 
baking  griddle-cakes,  and  boiling  coffee,  over  the  crazy, 
smoking,  broken  stove,  around  which  there  was  a  con- 


lacs.]  SUFFERINGS  FROM  VERMIN.  367 

slant  crowd,  were  disagreeable  in  the  extreme.  The 
prison  hours  were  long,  but  the  cooking-days  recurred 
with  unpleasant  frequency. 

We  scrubbed  our  room  two  or  three  times  a  week,/ 
and  it  was  fumigated  every  morning.  At  one  end  stood 
a  huge  wooden  tank,  with  an  abundant  supply  of  cold 
water,  in  which  we  could  bathe  at  pleasure. 

The  vermin  were  the  most  revolting  feature  of  the 
prison,  and  the  one  to  which  it  was  the  most  difficult  to 
become  resigned.  No  amount  of  personal  cleanliness 
could  guard  our  bodies  against  the  insatiate  lice.  Only 
by  examining  under-clothing  and  destroying  them  once 
or  twice  a  day,  could  they  be  kept  from  swarming  upon 
us.  For  the  first  week,  I  could  not  think  of  them  with 
out  shuddering  and  faintness :  but  in  time  I  learned  to 
make  my  daily  entomological  researches  with  calm  com 
placency. 

i  In  Nashville,  two  weeks  before  my  capture,  I  met 
Colonel  A.  D.  Streight,  of  Indiana.  At  the  head  of  a 
provisional  brigade  from  Rosecrans'  s  army,  he  was  about 
starting  on  a  raid  through  northern  Alabama  and  Georgia. 
The  expedition  promising  more  romance  and  novelty  than 
ordinary  army  experiences,  now  grown  a  little  monoto 
nous,  I  desired  to  accompany  him ;  but  other  duties 
prevented.  I  had  been  in  Libby  just  four  hours,  when 
in  walked  Streight,  followed  by  the  officers  of  his  entire  • 
brigade.  We  had  taken  very  different  routes,  but  they 
brought  us  to  the  same  terminus. 

Streight' s  command  had  been  furnished  with  mules, 
averaging  about  two  years  old,  and  quite  unused  to  the 
saddle.  Utterly  worthless,  they  soon  broke  down,  and 
with  much  difficulty,  he  remounted  his  men  upon  horses, 
pressed  from  the  citizens  ;  but  the  delay  proved  fatal. 

The    Rebel    General  Forrest  overtook  him  with  a 


368        PRISONERS  DENOUNCED  AS  BLASPHEMOUS. 

largely  superior  force.  Streight  was  an  enterprising, 
"brave  officer,  and  his  exhausted  men  behaved  admirably 
in  four  or  five  fights ;  but  at  last,  near  Rome,  Georgia, 
after  losing  one  third  of  his  command,  the  colonel  was 
compelled  to  surrender.  The  Rebels  were  very  exultant, 
and  Forrest — originally  a  slave-dealer  in  Memphis,  and 
a  greater  falsifier  than  Beauregard  himself — telegraphed 
that,  with  four  hundred  men,  he  had  captured  twenty- 
eight  hundred. 

Lieutenant  Charles  Pavie,  of  the  Eightieth  Illinois,  who 
commanded  Streight' s  artillery,  came  in  with  his  coat 
torn  to  shreds;  a  piece  of  shell  had  struck  him  in  the 
back,  inflicting  only  a  flesh  wound.  Upon  feeling  the 
shock,  he  instinctively  clapped  his  hands  to  his  stomach, 
to  ascertain  if  there  was  a  hole  there,  under  the  impres 
sion  that  the  entire  shell  had  passed  through  his  body ! 

The  prisoners  bore  their  confinement  with  good- 
humor  and  hilarity.  During  the  long  evenings,  they 
joined  in  the  "  Star- Spangled  Banner,"  "  Old  Hundred," 
"  Old  John  Brown,"  and  other  patriotic  and  religious 
airs.  The  Richmond  Whig,  shocked  that  the  profane 
and  ungodly  Yankees  should  presume  to  sing  "Old 
Hundred,"  denounced  it  as  a  piece  of  blasphemy. 

Captain  Brown  and  his  officers,  of  the  United  States 
gunboat  Indianola,  were  pointed  out  to  me  as  men  who 
had  actually  been  in  prison  for  three  months.  I  re 
garded  them  with  pity  and  wonder.  It  seemed  utterly 
impossible  that  I  could  endure  confinement  for  half  that 
time.  After-experiences  inclined  me  to  patronize  new 
comers,  and  regard  with  lofty  condescension,  men  who 
had  been  prisoners  only  twelve  or  fifteen  months  !  "  The 
Father  of  the  Marshalsea"  became  an  intelligible  and 
sympathetic  personage,  with  whom  we  should  have  hob 
nobbed  delightfully. 


1863.]      THIEVERY  OF  A  "VIRGINIA  GENTLEMAN."        369 

Simultaneously  with  our  arrival  in  Richmond,  a  Rebel 
officer  of  the  exchange  bureau  received  a  request  from 
the  editor  of  The  World,  for  the  release  of  Mr.  Colburn. 
It  proved  as  efficient  as  if  it  had  been  an  order  from 
Jefferson  Davis.  After  ten  days'  confinement  in  Libby, 
Colburn  was  sent  home  by  the  first  truce-boat.  A 
thoroughly  loyal  gentleman,  and  an  unselfish,  devoted 
friend,  he  was  induced  to  go,  only  by  the  assurance  that 
while  he  could  do  no  good  by  remaining,  he  might  be 
of  service  to  us  in  the  North. 

At  his  departure,  he  left  for  me,  with  Captain  Thomas 
P.  Turner,  commandant  of  the  prison,  fifty  dollars  in 
United  States  currency.  A  day  or  two  afterward,  Turner 
handed  the  sum  to  me  in  Confederate  rags,  dollar  for 
dollar,  asserting  that  this  was  the  identical  money  he  had 
received.  The  perpetrator  of  this  petty  knavery  was 
educated  at  West  Point,  and  claimed  to  be  a  Virginia 
gentleman. 

"  Junius"  suffered  greatly  from  intermittent  fever. 
The  weather  was  torrid.  In  the  roof  was  a  little  scuttle, 
to  which  we  ascended  by  a  ladder.  The  column  of  air 
rushing  up  through  that  narrow  aperture  was  foul, 
suffocating,  and  hot  as  if  coming  from  an  oven.  At 
night  we  went  out  on  the  roof  for  two  or  three  hours  to 
breathe  the  out-door  atmosphere.  When  the  authorities 
discovered  it,  they  informed  us,  through  Richard  Turner 
—an  ex-Baltimorean,  half  black-leg  and  half  gambler, 
who  was  inspector  of  the  prison — that  if  we  persisted, 
they  would  close  the  scuttle.  It  was  a  refined  and 
elaborate  method  of  torture. 

On  one  occasion,  this  same  Turner  struck  a  Xew 
York  captain  in  the  face  for  courteously  protesting 
against  being  deprived  of  a  little  fragment  of  shell  which 
he  had  brought  from  the  field  as  a  relic.  A  Rebel 

24 


370  PRISONERS  MURDERED  BY  THE  GAURDS.       [isea 

sergeant  inflicted  a  blow  upon  another  Union  captain  who 
chanced  to  be  jostled  against  him  by  the  crowd. 

For  slight  offenses,  officers  were  placed  in  an  under 
ground  cell  so  dark  and  foul,  that  I  saw  a  Pennsylvania 
lieutenant  come  out,  after  five  weeks'  confinement  there, 
his  beard  so  covered  with  mold  that  one  could  pluck  a 
double  handful  from  it ! 

Prisoners  putting  their  heads  for  a  moment  between 
the  bars  of  the  windows,  and  often  for  only  approaching 
the  apertures,  were  liable  to  be  shot.  One  officer,  stand 
ing  near  a  window,  was  ordered  by  the  sentinel  to  move 
back.  The  rattling  carriages  made  the  command  in 
audible.  The  guard  instantly  shot  him  through  the 
head,  and  he  never  spoke  again. 

Colonel  Streight  was  the  most  prominent  prisoner. 
He  talked  to  the  Rebel  authorities  with  imprudent,  but 
delightful  frankness.  More  than  once  I  heard  him  say 
to  them  : — 

"You  dare  not  carry  out  that  threat!  You  know 
our  Government  will  never  permit  it,  but  will  promptly 
retaliate  upon  your  own  officers,  whom  it  holds." 

When  our  rations  of  heavy  corn-bread  and  tainted 
meat  grew  very  short,  he  addressed  a  letter  to  James  A. 
Seddon,  Confederate  Secretary  of  War,  protesting  in  be 
half  of  his  brigade,  and  inquiring  whether  he  designed 
starving  prisoners  to  death  !  The  Rebels  hated  him  with 
peculiar  bitterness. 

The  five  Richmond  dailies  helped  us  greatly  in 
filling  up  the  long  hours.  At  daylight  an  old  slave, 
named  Ben,  would  arouse  us  from  our  slumbers,  shout 
ing  :— 

"Great  news  in  de  papers!  Great  news  from  de 
Army  of  Virginny  !  Great  tallygraphic  news  from  the 
Soufwest!" 


1863.]        FOURTH-OF-JULY    CELEBRATION   INTERRUPTED.         371 

He  disbursed  Ms  sheets  at  twenty-five  cents  per  copy, 
but  they  afterward  went  up  to  fifty. 

A  lieutenant  in  Grant's  army,  while  charging  one 
of  the  batteries  in  the  rear  of  Vicksburg,  received  a 
shot  in  the  face  which  entered  one  eye,  destroying  it 
altogether.  Ten  days  after,  he  arrived  in  Libby.  He 
walked  about  our  room  with  a  handkerchief  tied  around 
his  head,  smoking  complacently,  apparently  considering 
a  bullet  in  the  brain  a  very  slight  annoyance. 

We  attempted  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July. 
Captain  Driscoll,  of  Cincinnati,  with  other  ingenious 
officers,  had  manufactured  from  shirts  a  National  flag, 
which  was  hung  above  the  head  of  Colonel  Streight, 
who  occupied  the  chair,  or  rather  the  bed,  which  neces 
sity  substituted.  Two  or  three  speeches  had  been  made, 
and  several  hours  of  oratory  were  expected,  when  a 
sergeant  came  up  and  said  :— 

"  Captain  Turner  orders  that  you  stop  this  furse  !" 

Observing  the  flag,  he  called  upon  several  officers  to 
assist  him  in  taking  it  down.  Of  course,  none  did  so. 
He  finally  reached  it  himself,  tore  it  down,  and  bore  it 
to  the  prison  office.  A  long  discussion  ensued  about 
obeying  Turner' s  order.  After  nearly  as  much  time  had 
been  consumed  in  debate  as  it  would  have  required 
to  carry  out  the  programme,  and  speak  to  all  the  toasts 
— dry  toasts — it  was  voted  to  comply.  So  the  meeting, 
first  adopting  a  number  of  intensely  patriotic  resolutions, 
incontinently  adjourned. 

The  Rebel  authorities  confiscated  large  sums  of  money 
sent  from  home  to  the  prisoners,  and  sometimes  stopped 
the  purchase  of  supplies,  asserting  that  it  was  done  in 
retaliation  for  similar  treatment  of  their  own  soldiers 
confined  in  the  North.  Still  our  officers  fared  incom 
parably  better  than  the  Union  privates  who  were  half 


372  THE  HORRORS  OF  BELLE  ISLE.  [isea. 

starved  upon  Belle  Isle,  in  sight  of  our  prison.  We  did 
not  fully  accredit  the  reports  which  reached  us  touching 
the  sufferings  of  these  prisoners,  though  the  engravings 
of  their  emaciation  and  tortures  in  the  New  York  illus 
trated  papers,  which  sometimes  drifted  to  us,  so  enraged 
the  Rebels,  that  we  often  called  their  attention  to  them. 
But  our  own  paroled  officers,  who  were  permitted  to 
distribute  among  the  privates  clothing  sent  by  our  Gov 
ernment,  assured  us  that  they  were  substantially  true. 


1863.]  THE  CAPTAINS  ORDERED  BELOW.  373 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

"Who  was  so  firm,  so  constant,  that  this  coil 
Would  not  infect  his  reason  ? 

TEMPEST. 

"When  sorrows  come,  they  come  not  single  spies, 
But  in  battalions. 

HAMLET. 

the  6tli  of  July,  an  order  came  to  our  apartments 
for  all  the  captains  to  go  down  into  a  lower  room.  At 
this  time,  as  usual,  there  was  constant  talk  about  resum 
ing  the  exchange.  They  went  below  with  light  hearts, 
supposing  they  were  about  to  be  paroled  and  sent 
North.  Half  an  hour  after,  when  the  first  one  returned, 
his  white,  haggard  face  showed  that  he  had  been  through 
a  trying  scene. 

After  being  drawn  up  in  line,  they  were  required  -to 
draw  lots,  to  select  two  of  their  number  for  execution,  in 
retaliation  for  two  Rebel  officers,  tried  and  shot  in  Ken 
tucky  by  Burnside,  for  recruiting  within  our  lines. 

The  unhappy  designation  fell  upon  Captain  Sawyer, 
of  the  First  New  Jersey  Cavalry,  and  Captain  Flynn,  of 
the  Fifty-first  Indiana  Infantry.  They  were  taken  to  the 
office  of  General  Winder,  who  assured  them  that  the 
sentence  would  be  carried  out ;  and  without  pity  or  de 
cency,  selected  that  hour  to  revile  them  as  Yankee 
scoundrels  who  had  "  come  down  here  to  kill  our  sons, 
burn  our  houses,  and  devastate  our  country."  In  reply 
to  these  taunts,  they  bore  themselves  with  dignity  and 
calmness. 

"  When  I  went  into  the  war,"  responded  Flynn,  "  I 


374  Two  SELECTED  FOR  EXECUTION. 

knew  I  might  be  killed.  I  don't  know  Ibut  I  would  just 
as  soon  die  in  this  way  as  any  other." 

'  *  I  have  a  wife  and  child, ' '  said  Sawyer,  { '  who  are 
very  dear  to  me,  but  if  I  had  a  hundred  lives  I  would 
gladly  give  them  all  for  my  country." 

In  two  hours  they  came  back  to  their  quarters. 
Sawyer  was  externally  nervous ;  Flynn  calm.  Both 
expected  that  the  order  would  be  carried  out.  We  were 
confident  that  it  would  not.  I  predicted  to  Sawyer— 

"  They  will  never  dare  to  shoot  you  !" 

"I  will  bet  you  a  hundred  dollars  they  do  !"  was  his 
impulsive  reply.  I  said  to  Flynn — 

"  There  is  not  one  chance  in  ten  of  their  executing 
you." 

"I  know  it,"  he  answered.  "But,  when  we  drew 
lots,  I  took  one  chance  in  thirty -five,  and  then  lost !  "* 

On  the  same  evening  came  intelligence  that,  at  an  ob 
scure  town  in  Pennsylvania  called  Gettysburg,  Meade 
had  received  a  Waterloo  defeat,  was  flying  in  confusion 
to  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  after  losing  forty 
thousand  prisoners,  who  were  actually  on  their  way  to 
Richmond.  It  was  entertaining  to  read  the  speculations 
of  the  Rebel  papers  as  to  what  they  could  do  with  these 
forty  thousand  Yankees — where  they  could  find  men  to 
guard  them,  and  room  for  them — how  in  the  world  they 
could  feed  them  without  starving  the  people  of  Rich 
mond. 

*  Our  Government,  upon  learning  of  this,  ordered  the  commandant  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  the  moment  he  should  learn,  officially  or  otherwise,  that  Saw 
yer  and  Flynn  had  been  executed,  to  shoot  in  retaliation  two  Rebel  officers — 
sons  of  Generals  Lee  and  Winder.  On  the  reception  of  this  news  in  the  Rich 
mond  papers  at  daylight  one  morning,  the  prisoners  cheered  and  shouted  with 
delight.  As  they  supposed,  that  settled  the  question.  Nothing  more  was 
heard  about  executing  our  officers ;  and  soon  after,  Sawyer  and  Flynn  were  ex 
changed,  months  before  their  less  fortunate  comrades. 


1863.]  THE  GLOOMIEST  NIGHT  IN  PRISON.  375 

We  did  not  fully  believe  the  report,  but  it  touched 
us  very  nearly.  Those  reverses  to  our  army  came  home 
drearily  to  the  hearts  of  men  who  were  waiting  hope 
lessly  in  Rebel  prisons,  and  weighed  them  down  like 
millstones. 

Success  kindled  a"  corresponding  joy.  I  have  seen 
sick  and  dying  prisoners  on  cold  and  filthy  floors  of 
the  wretched  hospitals  filled  with  a  new  vitality — their 
sad,  pleading  eyes  lighted  with  a  new  hope,  their  wan 
faces  flushed,  and  their  speech  jubilant,  when  they 
learned  that  all  was  going  well  with  the  Cause,  It  made 
life  more  endurable  and  death  less  bitter. 

Already  suffering  from  anxiety  for  Flynn  and  Saw 
yer,  and  disheartened  by  the  reports  from  Pennsylvania, 
we  received  intelligence  that  Grant  had  been  utterly 
repulsed  before  the  works  of  Vicksburg,  the  siege  raised, 
and  the  campaign  closed  in  defeat  and  disaster.  It  was 
a  very  black  night  when  this  grief  was  added  to  the  first. 
The  prison  was  gloomy  and  silent  many  hours  earlier 
than  usual.  Our  hearts  were  too  heavy  for  speech. 

But  suddenly  there  came  a  great  revulsion.  Among 
the  negro  prisoners  was  an  old  man  of  seventy,  who 
had  particularly  attraced  my  attention  from  the  fact  that 
when  I  happened  to  speak  to  him  about  the  National 
conflict,  he  replied,  after  the  manner  of  Copperheads,  that 
it  was  a  speculators'  war  on  both  sides,  in  which  he  felt 
no  sort  of  interest ;  that  it  would  do  nobody  any  good  ; 
that  he  cared  not  when  or  how  it  ended.  I  wondered 
whether  the  old  African  was  shamming,  lest  his  conversa 
tion  should  be  reported,  to  the  curtailing  of  his  privi 
leges,  or  whether  he  was  really  that  anomaly,  a  black  man 
who  felt  no  interest  in  the  war. 

But  about  five  o'clock,  one  afternoon,  he  came  up 
into  our  room3  and,  when  the  door  was  closed  behind 


376  GLORIOUS  REVULSION  OF  FEELING.  [ises. 

Mm,  so  that  he  could  not  be  seen  by  the  officers  or 
guards,  he  made  a  rush  for  an  open  space  upon  the  floor, 
and  immediately  began  to  dance  in  a  manner  very  re 
markable  for  a  man  of  seventy,  and  rheumatic  at  that. 
We  all  gathered  around  him  and  asked— 

"  General"  (that  was  his  soubriquet  in  the  prison), 
"what  does  this  mean  ? " 

' '  Be  Yankees  has  taken  Yicksburg  !  De  Yankees  has 
taken  Yicksburg  !  "  and  then  he  began  to  dance  again. 

As  soon  as  we  could  calm  him  into  a  little  coherence, 
he  drew  from  his  pocket  a  newspaper  extra — the  ink  not 
yet  dry — which  he  had  stolen  from  one  of  the  Rebel  offi 
cers.  There  it  was  !  The  Yankees  Jiad  taken  Yicksburg, 
with  more  than  thirty  thousand  prisoners. 

Good  tiding^,  like  bad,  seldom  come  alone.  Shortly  af 
ter,  we  learned  that  there  was  also  a  slight  mistake  about 
Gettysburg — that  Lee,  instead  of  Meade,  was  flying  in 
confusion ;  and  that,  while  our  people  had  captured  fif 
teen  or  twenty  thousand  Rebels,  those  forty  thousand 
Yankee  prisoners  were  "conspicuous  for  their  absence." 

How  our  hearts  leaped  up  at  this  cheering  news  ! 
How  suddenly  that  foul  prison  air  grew  sweet  and  pure 
as  the  fragrant  breath  of  the  mountains  !  There  was 
laughing,  there  was  singing,  there  was  dancing,  which 
the  old  negro  did  not  altogether  monopolize.  Some  one 
shouted,  "  Glory,  hallelujah  !"  Mr.  McCabe,  an  Ohio 
chaplain,  whose  clear,  ringing  tones,  as  he  led  the  sing 
ing,  cheered  many  of  our  heaviest  hours,  instantly  took 
the  hint,  and  started  that  beautiful  hymn,  by  Mrs.  Howe, 
of  which  "  Glory,  hallelujah"  is  the  chorus  :— 

"For  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord." 

Every  voice  in  the  room  joined  in  it.  I  never  saw  men 
more  stirred  and  thrilled  than  were  those  three  or  four 


lees.]  EXCITING  DISCUSSION  IN  PRISON.  377 

hundred  prisoners,  as  they  heard  the  impressive  closing 
stanza : — 

uln  the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
TVith  a  glory  in  His  bosom  that  transfigures  you  and  me ; 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free!" 

Despite  reading,  conversing,  and  cutting  out  finger- 
rings,  napkin-rings,  breast-pins,  and  crosses,  from  the 
beef-bones  extracted  from  our  rations,  in  which  some 
prisoners  were  exceedingly  skillful,  the  hours  were  very 
heavy.  A  debating-club  was  formed,  and  much  time  was 
spent  in  discussing  animal  magnetism  and  other  topics. 
Occasionally  we  had  mock  courts,  which  developed  a 
good  deal  of  originality  and  wit. 

Late  in  July,  a  mania  for  study  began  to  prevail. 
Classes  were  formed  in  Greek,  Latin,  German,  French, 
Spanish,  Algebra,  Geometry,  and  Rhetoric.  We  sent 
out  to  the  Richmond  stores  for  text- books,  and  all 
found  instructors,  as  the  motley  company  of  officers 
embraced  natives  of  every  civilized  country. 

July  30th  was  a  memorable  day.  The  prisoners 
had  become  greatly  excited  on  the  momentous  question 
of  small  messes  versus  large  messes.  There  were  only 
three  cooking-stoves  for  the  accommodation  of  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  officers.  A  majority  thought 
it  more  convenient  to  divide  into  messes  of  twenty,  while 
others,  favoring  small  messes  of  from  four  to  eight  each, 
determined  to  retain  those  organizations.  The  prisoners 
now  occupied  five  rooms,  communicating  with  each  other. 

A  public  meeting  was  called  in  our  apartment,  with 
Colonel  Streight  in  the  chair.  A  fiery  discussion  en 
sued.  The  large-mess  party  insisted  that  the  majority 
must  rule,  and  the  minority  submit  to  be  formed  into 
messes  of  twenty.  The  small -mess  party  replied  : — 


378          STEALING  MONEY  FROM  THE  CAPTIVES.          [ises. 

"We  will  not  "be  coerced.  We  are  one-third  of  all 
the  prisoners.  We  insist  upon  our  right  to  one-third 
of  the  kitchen,  one-third  of  the  fuel,  and  one  of  the 
three  cooking-stoves.  It  is  nobody's  business  but  our 
own  whether  we  have  messes  of  two  or  one  hundred." 

I  was  never  present  at  any  debate,  parliamentary, 
political,  or  religious,  which  developed  more  earnestness 
and  bitterness.  The  meeting  passed  a  resolution,  insist 
ing  upon  large  messes ;  the  small-mess  party  refused 
to  vote  upon  it,  and  declared  that  they  would  never, 
never  submit !  The  question  was  finally  decided  by 
permitting  all  to  do  exactly  as  they  pleased. 

Prisoners  kept  in  the  underground  cells  heard  revolt 
ing  stories.  They  were  informed  by  the  guards  that  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  usually  left  in  an  adjoining  room  for 
a  day  or  two  before  burial,  were  frequently  eaten  by  rats. 

From  want  of  vegetables  and  variety  of  diet,  scurvy 
became  common.  With  many  others,  I  suffered  some 
what  from  it.  On  the  13th  of  August,  Major  Morris, 
of  the  Sixth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  died  suddenly 
from  a  malignant  form  of  this  disease.  His  fellow- 
prisoners  desired  to  have  his  body  embalmed.  The 
Rebel  authorities  had  one  hundred  dollars  in  United 
States  currency,  belonging  to  the  major,  but  they  refused 
to  apply  it  to  this  purpose.  Four  hundred  dollars  in 
Confederate  currency  was  therefore  subscribed  by  the 
prisoners.  Several  brother-officers  of  the  deceased  were 
permitted  to  follow  the  remains  to  the  cemetery. 

Thirty  or  forty  Northern  citizens  were  confined  in  a 
room  under  us.  They  were  thrust  in  with  Yankee  de 
serters  of  the  worst  character,  and  treated  with  the  great 
est  barbarity.  Their  rations  were  very  short ;  they 
were  allowed  to  purchase  nothing.  We  cut  a  hole 
through  the  floor,  and  every  evening  dropped  down 


1863.]    HORRIBLE  TREATMENT  OF  NORTHERN  CITIZENS.    370 

crackers  and  bread,  contributed  from  the  various  messes. 
When  they  saw  the  food  coming,  they  would  crowd 
beneath  the  aperture,  with  upturned  faces  and  eager 
eyes,  springing  to  clutch  every  crumb,  sometimes  ready 
to  fight  over  the  smallest  morsels,  and  looking  more  like 
ravenous  animals  than  human  beings.  Some  of  them,  ac 
customed  to  luxury  at  home,  ate  water-melon  rinds  and 
devoured  morsels  which  they  extracted  from  the  spit 
toons  and  from  other  places  still  more  revolting. 

Several  schemes  of  escape  were  ingenious  and  original. 
Impudence  was  the  trump  card.  Four  or  five  officers 
took  French  leave,  by  procuring  Confederate  uniforms, 
which  enabled  them  to  pass  the  guards.  Captain  John 
F.  Porter,  of  New  York,  obtaining  a  citizen' s  suit,  walked 
out  of  the  prison  in  broad  daylight,  passing  all  the  senti 
nels,  who  supposed  him  to  be  a  clergyman  or  some  other 
pacific  resident  of  Richmond.  A  lady  in  the  city  secreted 
him.  By  the  negroes,  he  sent  a  message  to  his  late  com 
rades,  asking  for  money,  which  they  immediately  trans 
mitted.  Obtaining  a  pilot,  he  made  his  way  through  the 
swamps  to  the  Union  lines,  in  season  to  claim,  on  the  ap 
pointed  day,  the  hand  of  a  young  lady  who  awaited  him 
at  home.  He  was  an  enterprising  bridegroom. 

During  the  long  evenings,  when  we  were  faint, 
bilious,  and  weak  from  our  thin  diet,  some  of  my  com 
rades,  with  morbid  eloquence,  would  dwell  upon  all 
luxuries  that  tempt  the  epicurean  palate, — debating,  in 
detail,  what  dishes  they  would  order,  were  they  at  the 
best  hotels  of  New  York  or  Philadelphia.  These  tan 
talizing  discussions  were  so  annoying  that  they  invariably 
drove  me  from  the  group,  sometimes  exciting  a  desire  to 
strike  those  who  loould  drag  forward  the  unpleasant 
subject,  and  keep  me  reminded  of  the  hunger  which  I 
was  striving  to  forget. 


380    EXTRAVAGANT  HUMOUS  AMONG  THE  PRISONERS,  [ises. 

The  exchange  was  altogether  suspended,  and  new 
prisoners  were  constantly  arriving,  until  Libby  contained 
several  hundred  officers. 

Extravagant  rumors  of  all  sorts  were  constantly  afloat 
among  the  captives ;  hardly  a  day  passing  without  some 
sensation  story.  They  were  not  usually  pure  invention ; 
but  in  prison,  as  elsewhere  during  exciting  periods,  the 
air  seemed  to  generate  wild  reports,  which,  in  passing 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  grew  to  wonderful  proportions. 


[1863.  TKAXSFEURED  TO  CASTLE  THUNDER.  381 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

I  had  rather  than  forty  pound  I  were  at  home. 

—TWELFTH  NIGHT,  OB  WHAT  YOU  WILL. 

the  evening  of  September  2d,  all  the  northern 
citizens  were  transferred  from  Libby  to  Castle  Thunder. 
The  open  air  caused  a  strange  sensation  of  faintness. 
We  grew  weak  and  dizzy  in  walking  the  three  hundred 
yards  between  the  prisons. 

That  night  we  were  thrust  into  an  unventilated, 
filthy,  subterranean  room,  nearly  as  loathsome  as  the 
Vicksburg  jail.  But  we  smoked  our  pipes  serenely, 
remembering  that  "  Fortune  is  turning,  and  inconstant, 
and  variations,  and  mutabilities,"  and  wondering  what 
that  capricious  lady  would  next  decree.  At  inter 
vals,  our  sleep  upon  the  dirty  floor  was  disturbed  by 
the  playful  gambols  of  the  rats  over  our  hands  and 
faces. 

The  next  morning  we  were  drawn  up  in  line,  and  our 
names  registered  by  an  old  warden  named  Cooper,  who, 
in  spectacles  and  faded  silk  hat,  looked  like  one  of 
Dickens' s  beadles.  His  query  whether  we  possessed 
moneys,  was  uniformly  answered  in  the  negative. 
When  he  asked  if  we  had  knives  or  concealed  weapons, 
all  gave  the  same  response,  except  one  waggish  pris 
oner,  who  averred  that  he  had  a  ten-inch  columbiad  in 
his  vest  pocket. 

The  Commandant  of  Castle  Thunder  was  Captain 
George  W.  Alexander,  an  ex-Marylander,  who  had  par- 


382  MORE  ENDURABLE  THAN  LIBBY. 

ticipated  with  uthe  French  Lady"'"  in  the  capture  of 
the  steamer  St.  Nicholas,  near  Point  Lookout,  and  was 
afterward  confined  for  some  months  at  Fort  McHenry. 
He  formerly  "belonged  to  the  United  States  N"avy,  in  the 
capacity  of  assistant  engineer.  He  made  literary  pre 
tensions,  writing  thin  plays  for  the  Richmond  theaters, 
and  sorry  Rebel  war-ballads.  Pompous  and  exces 
sively  vain,  delighting  in  gauntlets,  top-boots,  huge 
revolvers,  and  a  red  %ash,  he  was  sometimes  furiously 
angry,  but,  in  the  main,  kind  to  captives.  He  caused 
us  to  be  placed  in  the  "  Citizens'  Room,"  which  he 
called  the  prison  parlor.  Its  walls  were  whitewashed, 
its  four  windows  were  iron-barred,  its  air  tainted  by 
exhalations  from  the  adjoining  "  Condemned  Cell," 
which  was  fearfully  foul.  It  was  lighted  with  gas,  and 
had  a  single  stove  for  cooking,  a  few  bunks,  and  a  clean 
floor. 

Castle  Thunder  contained  about  fifteen  hundred 
inmates — northern  citizens,  southern  Unionists,  Yankee 
deserters,  Confederate  convicts,  and  eighty-two  free 
negroes,  captured  with  Federal  officers,  who  employed 
them  as  servants  in  the  field. 

The  prison' s  reputation  was  worse  than  that  of  Lib- 
by ;  but,  as  usual,  we  found  the  devil  not  quite  so  black 
as  he  was  painted.  We  missed  sadly  the  society  of  the 
Union  officers,  but  the  Commandant  and  attaches,  unlike 
the  Turners,  treated  us  courteously,  iiever  indulging  in 
epithets  and  insults. 

In  the  Citizens'  Room  were  two  northerners,  named 

*  Captain  Thomas,  in  the  character  of  a  French  lady,  took  passage  on 
the  steamer  at  Baltimore,  with  several  followers  disguised  as  mechanics. 
Near  Point  Lookout  they  overpowered  the  crew  and  captured  the  vessel, 
converting  her  into  a  privateer.  Afterward,  while  attempting  to  repeat 
the  enterprise,  they  were  made  prisoners. 


lacs.]  DETERMINED  NOT  TO  DIE.  383 

Lewis  and  Scully,  sent  to  Richmond  in  the  secret  ser 
vice  of  our  Government,  by  General  Scott,  before  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  confined  ever  since.  One  of 
them  was  a  Catholic,  through  the  influence  of  whose 
priest  both  had  thus  far  been  preserved.  But  they  held 
existence  by  a  frail  tenure,  and  I  could  not  wonder  that 
long  anxiety  had  turned  Lewis'  s  hair  gray,  and  given  to 
both  nervous,  haggard  faces. 

In  all  southern  prisons  I  was  forced  to  admire  the 
fidelity  with  which  the  Roman  Church  looks  after  its 
members.  Priests  frequently  visited  all  places  of  con 
finement  to  inquire  for  Catholics,  and  minister  both  to 
their  spiritual  and  bodily  needs.  The  chaplain  at  Castle 
Thunder  was  a  Presbyterian.  He  scattered  documents, 
and  preached  every  Sunday  in  the  yard  or  one  of  the 
large  rooms.  He  would  have  given  tracts  on  the  sin  of 
dancing  to  men  without  any  legs. 

The  Rev.  William  G.  Scandlin  and  Dr.  McDonald,  of 
Boston — agents  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commis 
sion — were  held  with  us.  The  doctor  was  dangerously 
ill  from  dysentery.  The  Commission  had  never  discrim 
inated  between  suffering  Unionists  and  Confederates, 
extending  to  both  the  same  bounty  and  tenderness ;  yet 
the  Rebels  kept  these  gentlemen,  whom  they  had  cap 
tured  on  the  way  to  Harper' s  Ferry  with  sanitary  sup 
plies,  for  more  than  three  months. 

"Junius"  was  very  feeble;  but  during  the  weary 
months  which  followed,  he  manifested  wonderful  vital 
ity.  His  indignation  toward  the  enemy,  and  Ms  earnest 
determination  not  to  die  in  a  Rebel  prison,  greatly 
helped  his  endurance.  Like  the  Duchess  of  Marlboro', 
he  refused  either  to  be  bled  or  to  give  up  the  ghost. 

A  Virginia  citizen  was  brought  in  on  the  charge  of 
attempting  to  trade  in  "  greenbacks," — a  penitentiary 


384  A  NEGRO  CRUELLY  WHIPPED.  [ises. 

offense  under  Confederate  law.  Before  lie  had  been  in 
our  room  five  minutes  one  of  the  sub-wardens  entered, 
asking : 

"Is  there  anybody  here  who  has  'greenbacks?' 
I  am  paying  four  dollars  for  one  to-day." 

The  negroes  were  used  for  scrubbing  and  carrying 
messages  from  the  office  of  the  prison  to  the  different 
apartments.  Invariably  our  friends,  they  surreptitiously 
conveyed  notes  to  acquaintances  in  the  other  rooms,  and 
often  to  Unionists  outside. 

While  we  were  at  Libby,  an  intelligent  mulatto 
prisoner  from  Philadelphia  was  whipped  for  some  trivial 
offense.  His  piercing  shrieks  followed  each  application 
of  the  lash ;  one  of  my  messmates,  who  counted  them, 
stated  that  he  received  three  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
blows.  A  month  afterward  I  examined  his  back,  and 
found  it  still  gridironed  with  scars. 

At  the  Castle  the  negroes  frequently  received  from 
five  to  twenty-five  lashes.  I  saw  boys  not  more  than 
eight  years  old  turned  over  a  barrel  and  cowhided. 
One  woman  upward  of  sixty  was  whipped  in  the  same 
manner.  This  negress  was  known  as  "Old  Sally;"  she 
earned  a  good  deal  of  Confederate  money  by  washing 
for  prisoners,  and  spent  nearly  the  whole  of  it  in  pur 
chasing  supplies  for  unfortunates  who  were  without 
means.  She  had  been  confined  in  different  prisons  for 
nearly  three  years. 

The  next  oldest  inmate  was  a  Little  Dorrit  of  a  cur, 
born  and  raised  in  the  Castle.  Notwithstanding  her 
life-long  associations,  she  manifested  the  usual  canine 
antipathy  toward  negroes  and  tatterdemalions. 

Soon  after  our  arrival,  Spencer  Kellogg,  of  Philadel 
phia,  one  of  our  fellow-prisoners,  was  executed  as  a 
Yankee  spy.  He  had  been  in  the  secret  service  of  the 


1863.]         THE  EXECUTION  OF  SPENCER  KELLOGG.          385 

United  States,  but  belonged  to  the  western  navy  at  the 
time  of  his  capture.  He  bore  himself  with  great  cool 
ness  and  self-possession,  assuring  the  Rebels  that  he  was 
glad  to  die  for  his  country.  On  the  scaffold  he  did  not 
manifest  the  slightest  tremor.  While  the  rope  was  being 
adjusted,  he  accidentally  knocked  off  the  hat  of  a 
bystander,  to  whom  he  turned  and  said,  with  great 
suavity  :  "I  beg  your  pardon,  sir." 

The  loyalty  of  the  southern  Unionists  was  intense. 
One  Tennessean,  whose  hair  was  white  with  age,  was 
taken  before  Major  Carrington,  the  Provost-Marshal, 
who  said  to  him  : 

uYou  are  so  old  that  I  have  concluded  to  send  you 
home,  if  you  will  take  the  oath." 

uSir,"  replied  the  prisoner,  "if  you  knew  me  per 
sonally,  I  should  think  you  meant  to  insult  me.  I  have 
lived  seventy  years,  and,  God  helping  me,  I  will  not  now 
do  an  act  to  embitter  the  short  remnant  of  my  life,  and 
one  which  I  should  regret  through  eternity.  I  have  four 
boys  in  the  Union  army  ;  they  all  went  there  by  my  ad 
vice.  Were  I  young  enough  to  carry  a  musket  I  would 
be  with  them  to-day  fighting  against  the  Rebellion." 

The  sturdy  old  Loyalist  at  last  died  in  prison. 

There  were  many  kindred  cases.  Nearly  all  the 
men  of  this  class  confined  with  us  were  from  mountain 
regions  of  the  South.  Many  were  ragged,  all  were 
poor.  They  very  seldom  heard  from  their  families. 
They  were  compelled  to  live  solely  upon  the  prison 
rations,  often  a  perpetual  compromise  with  starvation. 
Some  had  been  in  confinement  for  two  or  three  years, 
and  their  homes  desolated  and  burned.  Unlike  the 
North,  they  knew  what  war  meant. 

Yet  the  lamp  of  their  loyalty  burned  with  inextin 
guishable  brightness.  They  never  denounced  the  Gov- 

25 


386         STEADFASTNESS  OF  SOUTHERN  UNIONISTS.        [ises. 

ernment,  which  sometimes  neglected  them  to  a  criminal 
degree.  They  never  desponded,  through  the  gloomiest 
days,  when  imbecility  in  the  Cabinet  and  timidity  in  the 
field  threatened  to  ruin  the  Union  Cause.  They  seldom 
yielded  an  iota  of  principle  to  their  keepers.  Hungry, 
cold,  and  naked — waiting,  waiting,  waiting,  through  the 
slow  months  and  years— often  sick,  often  dying,  they 
continued  true  as  steel.  History  has  few  such  records  of 
steadfast  devotion.  Greet  it  reverently  with  uncovered 
head,  as  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  our  temple  of  Patriotism  ! 


1863.]  A  WAGGISH  JOURNALIST.  387 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 


-One  fading  moment's  mirth, 


With  twenty  watchful,  weary,  tedious  nights. 

— Two  GENTLEMEN  OF  VERONA. 

WE  consumed  many  of  the  long  hours  in  convers 
ing,  reading,  and  whist-playing.  Night  after  night  we 
strolled  wearily  up  and  down  our  narrow  room,  igno 
rant  of  the  outer  world,  save  through  glimpses,  caught 
from  the  barred  windows,  of  the  clear  "blue  sky  and  the 
pitying  stars. 

Still,  endeavoring  to  make  the  "best  of  it,  we  were 
often  mirthful  and  boisterous.  Two  correspondents  of 
The  Herald,  Mr.  S.  T.  Bulkley  and  Mr.  L.  A.  Hendrick, 
were  partners  in  our  captivity.  Hendrick' s  irrepressible 
waggery  never  slept.  One  evening  a  Virginia  ruralist, 
whose  intellect  was  not  of  the  brightest,  was  brought  in 
for  some  violation  of  Confederate  law.  After  pouring 
his  sorrows  into  the  sympathetic  ear  of  the  correspond 
ent,  he  suddenly  asked : 

"  What  are  you  here  for  2" 

"I  am  the  victim,"  replied  Hendrick,  "of  gross  and 
flagrant  injustice.  I  am  the  inventor  of  a  new  piece  of 
artillery  known  as  the  Hendrick  gun.  Its  range  far  ex 
ceeds  every  other  cannon  in  the  world.  A  week  ago  I 
was  testing  it  from  the  Richmond  defenses,  where  it  is 
mounted.  One  of  its  shots  accidentally  struck  and  sunk 
a  blockade  runner  just  entering  the  port  of  Wilmington. 
It  was  not  my  fault.  I  didn't  aim  at  the  steamer.  I  was 
just  trying  the  gun  .for  the  benefit  of  the  country.  But 


388  PROCEEDINGS  OF  A  MOCK  COUKT.  [ises. 

these  confounded  Richmond  authorities  insisted  upon  it 
that  I  should  pay  for  the  vessel.  I  told  them  I  would 

see  them first,  and  they  shut  me  up  in  Castle 

Thunder ;  but  I  never  will  pay  in  the  world." 

"  You  are  quite  right.  I  would  not,  if  I  were  you," 
replied  the  innocent  Virginian.  "It  is  the  greatest  out 
rage  I  ever  heard  of." 

A  fellow-prisoner  had  been  elected  commissary  of  our 
room,  to  divide  and  distribute  the  rations.  One  evening 
a  court  was  organized  to  try  him  for  "malfeasance  in 
office."  The  indictment  charged  that  he  issued  soup 
only  when  he  ought  to  issue  meat — stealing  the  beef  and 
selling  it  for  his  personal  benefit.  One  correspondent 
appeared  as  prosecuting  attorney,  another  as  counsel 
for  the  defense,  and  a  third  as  presiding  judge. 

An  extract  from  a  Richmond  journal  being  objected 
to  as  testimony,  it  was  decided  that  any  thing  published 
by  any  newspaper  must  necessarily  be  true,  and  was 
competent  evidence  in  that  court.  A  great  deal  of  re 
markable  law  was  cited  in  Greek,  Latin,  German,  and 
French.  Counsel  were  fined  for  contempt  of  court, 
jurors  placed  under  arrest  for  going  to  sleep.  When  the 
spectators  became  boisterous,  the  sheriff  was  ordered  to 
clear  the  court-room,  and,  during  certain  testimony,  the 
judge  requested  that  the  ladies  withdraw. 

The  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and,  after  being 
harangued  in  touching  terms  upon  the  enormity  of  his 
offense,  the  culprit  was  sentenced  to  eat  a  quart  of  his 
own  soup  at  a  single  meal.  It  was  an  hilarious  affair  for 
that  loathsome  place,  which  swarmed  with  vermin,  and 
where  the  silence  was  broken  nightly  by  the  clanking 
and  rattling  of  the  chains  of  convicts. 

Many  prison  inmates  exhibited  daring  and  ingenuity 
in  attempting  to  escape.  Castle  Thunder  was  vigilantly 


1863.]  ESCAPE  BY  KILLING  A  GUARD.  389 

and  securely  guarded,  with  a  score  of  sentinels  inside, 
and  a  cordon  of  sentinels  without. 

In  the  condemned  cell  adjoining  our  room  was  a 
Eebel  officer  named  Booth,  with  three  comrades,  under 
sentence  of  death  on  charge  of  murder.  All  were 
heavily  ironed.  Nightly,  as  the  time  appointed  for  their 
execution  approached,  they  surprised  us  by  dancing, 
rattling  their  chains,  and  singing.  At  one  o'  clock  on  the 
morning  of  October  22d,  we  were  awakened  by  shouts 
and  musket-shots.  The  whole  Castle  was  alarmed,  and 
the  guard  turned  out. 

With  a  saw  made  from  a  case-knife,  Booth  had  cut 
a  hole  through  the  floor  of  his  cell,  his  comrades  the 
while  singing  and  dancing  to  drown  the  noise.  They 
were  compelled  to  be  very  cautious,  as  a  sentinel 
paced  within  six  feet  of  them,  under  instructions  to 
watch  them  closely.  Filing  off  their  irons,  they  descend 
ed  cautiously  through  the  aperture  into  a  store-room, 
where  they  found  four  muskets.  In  the  darkness  they  re 
moved  the  lock  from  the  door,  and  each  taking  a  gun, 
crept  into  another  room  opening  to  the  street;  struck 
down  the  sentinel,  and  felled  a  second  with  the  butt  of 
a  musket,  knocking  him  ten  or  twelve  feet.  At  the 
outer  door,  a  guard,  who  had  taken  the  alarm,  presented 
his  gun.  Before  he  could  fire,  Booth  shot  him  fatally 
through  the  head. 

The  three  late  prisoners  ran  up  the  street,  several  in 
effectual  shots  being  fired  after  them  by  the  guards,  who 
dared  not  leave  their  posts.  At  the  long  bridge  across 
the  James  River  they  knocked  down  another  sentinel, 
who  attempted  to  stop  them.  Traveling  by  night  through 
the  woods,  they  soon  reached  the  Union  lines. 

A  considerable  number  of  prisoners  smeared  their 
faces  with  croton-oil  to  produce  eruptions.  The  surgeon, 


390  ESCAPE  BY  PLAYING  NEGRO. 

called  in  at  exactly  the  right  stage,  pronounced  the  disease 
small-pox.  They  were  driven  toward  the  small-pox  hos 
pital  in  unguarded  ambulances,  from  which  they  jumped 
and  ran  for  their  lives.  It  was  a  profound  mystery  to 
the  physician  that  patients  should  be  so  agile,  until, 
examining  one  face  after  the  eruptions  began  to  subside, 
he  detected  the  imposition. 

In  Tennessee  two  Indiana  captains  were  found  with 
in  the  Rebel  lines.  They  were  actually  in  the  secret 
service  of  the  Government,  reconnoitering  Confederate 
camps  ;  but  they  passed  themselves  off  as  deserters,  and 
were  brought  to  the  Castle.  One  told  me  his  story,  ad 
ding  : 

"They  offer  to  release  us  if  we  will  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Southern  Confederacy  ;  but  I  cannot  do 
that.  I  want  to  rejoin  my  regiment,  and  fight  the  Rebels 
while  the  war  lasts.  I  must  escape,  and  I  cannot  afford 
to  lose  any  time." 

He  kept  his  own  counsel ;  but  the  next  night  took  up 
a  plank  and  descended  to  a  subterranean  room,  whence 
he  began  digging  a  tunnel.  After  several  nights'  labor, 
when  almost  completed,  the  tunnel  was  discovered  by 
the  prison  authorities.  He  immediately  commenced 
another.  That  also  was  found,  a  few  hours  before 
it  would  have  proved  a  success.  Then  he  tried  the  cro- 
ton-oil,  and  in  ten  days  he  was  again  under  the  old  flag. 

One  prisoner,  procuring  from  the  negroes  a  suit  of  old 
clothing,  a  slouched  hat,  and  a  piece  of  burnt  cork, 
assumed  the  garments,  and  blackened  his  face.  With 
a  bucket  in  his  hand,  he  followed  the  negroes  down 
three  flights  of  stairs  and  past  four  sentinels.  Hiding  in 
the  negro  quarters  until  after  dark,  he  then  leaped  from 
a  window  in  the  very  face  of  a  sentinel,  but  disappeared 
around  a  corner  before  the  soldier  could  fire. 


1863.]  ESCAPE  BY  FORGING  A  RELEASE.  391 

Another  was  sent  to  General  Winder' s  office  for  exami 
nation.  On  the  way  he  told  his  stolid  guard  that  he  was 
clerk  of  the  Castle,  and  ordered  him  : 

"  Go  up  this  street  to  the  next  corner  and  wait  there 
forme.  lam  compelled  to  visit  the  Provost-Marshal's 
office.  Be  sure  and  wait.  I  will  meet  you  in  fifteen  min 
utes." 

The  unsuspecting  guard  obeyed  the  order,  and  the 
prisoner  leisurely  walked  off. 

Captain  Lafayette  Jones,  of  Carter  County,  Tennessee, 
was  held  on  the  charge  of  bushwhacking  and  recruiting 
for  the  Federal  army  within  the  Rebel  lines.  If  brought 
to  trial,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  been  convicted  and 
shot.  He  succeeded  in  deluding  the  officers  of  the 
prison  about  his  own  identity,  and  was  released  upon 
enlisting  in  the  Rebel  army,  under  the  name  of  Leander 
Johannes. 

George  W.  Hudson,  of  New  York,  had  been  caught 
in  Louisiana,  while  acting  as  a  spy  in  the  Union  service. 
Returning  to  the  prison  from  a  preliminary  examination 
before  General  Winder,  he  said  : 

"  They  have  found  all  my  papers,  which  were  sewn 
in  the  lining  of  my  valise.  There  is  evidence  enough  to 
hang  me  twenty  times  over.  I  have  no  hope  unless  I 
can  escape." 

He  canvassed  a  number  of  plans,  at  last  deciding 
upon  one.  Then  he  remarked,  with  great  nonchalance  : 

"  Well,  I  am  not  quite  ready  yet ;  I  must  send  out  to 
buy  a  valise  and  get  my  clothes  washed,  so  that  I  can 
leave  in  good  shape." 

Three  or  four  days  later,  having  completed  these 
arrangements,  he  wrote  an  order  for  his  own  discharge, 
forging  General  Winder's  signature.  It  was  a  close 
imitation  of  Winder's  genuine  papers  upon  which 


392     ESCAPED  PRISONER  AT  JEFF.  DAVIS'S  LEVEE.     [ISGS. 

prisoners  were  discharged  daily.  Hudson  employed  a 
negro  to  leave  this  document,  unobserved,  upon  the 
desk  of  the  prison  Adjutant.  Just  then  I  was  confined 
in  a  cell  for  an  attempt  to  escape.  One  morning  some  one 
tapped  at  my  door  ;  looking  out  through  the  little  aper 
ture,  I  saw  Hudson,  valise  in  hand,  with  the  warden 
"behind  him. 

"I  have  come  to  say  good-lby.  My  discharge  has 
arrived."  (In  a  whisper,)  "Put  your  ear  up  here.  My 
plan  is  working  to  a  charm.  It  is  the  prettiest  thing 
you  ever  saw." 

He  bade  me  adieu,  conversed  a  few  minutes  with  the 
prison  officers,  and  walked  leisurely  up  the  street.  A 
Union  lady  sheltered  him,  and  when  the  Rebels  next 
heard  of  Hudson  he  was  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
serving  upon  the  staff  of  General  Meade. 

Robert  Slocum,  of  the  Nineteenth  Massachusetts 
Volunteers,  was  taken  to  Richmond  as  a  prisoner  of  war. 
In  two  days  he  escaped,  and  procured,  from  friendly 
negroes,  citizen's  clothing.  Then  passing  himself  off  as 
an  Englishman  recently  arrived  in  America  by  a  block 
ade-runner,  he  attempted  to  leave  the  port  of  Wilmington 
for  Nassau.  Through  some  informality  in  his  passport, 
he  was  arrested  and  lodged  in  Castle  Thunder.  Employ 
ing  an  attorney,  he  secured  his  release.  Still  adhering 
to  the  original  story,  he  remained  in  Richmond  for  many 
months.  He  frequently  sent  us  letters,  supplies,  and 
provisions,  and  made  many  attempts  to  aid  us  in  esca 
ping.  One  day  he  wrote  me  an  entertaining  description 
of  President  Davis' s  levee,  at  which  he  had  spent  the 
previous  evening. 


lacs.]  ASSISTANCE  FROM  A  NEGRO  BOY.  393 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

Misery  acquaints  a  man  with  strange  bed-fellows. 

—TEMPEST. 

SEVERAL  days  of  our  confinement  in  Castle  Thun 
der  were  spent  in  a  little  cell  with  burglars,  thieves, 
"bounty -jumpers,"  and  confidence  men.  Our  associa 
tion  with  these  strange  companions  happened  in  this 
wise : 

One  day  we  completed  an  arrangement  with  a  cor 
poral  of  the  guard,  by  which,  with  the  aid  of  four  of  his 
men,  he  was  to  let  us  out  at  midnight.  We  had  a  friend 
in  Richmond,  but  did  not  know  precisely  where  his 
house  was  situated.  We  were  very  anxious  to  learn,  and 
fortunately,  on  this  very  day,  he  sent  a  meal  to  a  prisoner 
in  our  room.  Recognizing  the  plate,  I  asked  the  intelli 
gent  young  Baltimore  negro  who  brought  it : 

"  Is  my  friend  waiting  below  ? " 

"Yes,  sir." 

c '  Can' t  you  get  me  an  opportunity  to  see  him  for  one 
moment?" 

"I  think  so,  sir.  Come  with  me  and  we  will 
try." 

The  boy  led  me  through  the  passages  and  down  the 
stairs,  past  four  guards,  who  supposed  that  he  had  been 
sent  by  the  prison  authorities.  As  we  reached  the  lower 
floor,  I  saw  my  friend  standing  in  the  street  door,  with 
two  officers  of  the  prison  beside  him.  By  a  look  I  beck 
oned  him.  He  walked  toward  me  and  I  toward  him, 


394  THE  PRISON  OFFICERS  ENRAGED. 

until  we  met  at  the  little  railing  which,  separated  us. 
There,  over  the  bayonet  of  the  sentinel,  this  whispered 
conversation  followed : 

' '  We  hope  to  get  out  to-night ;  can  we  find  refuge  in 
your  house?" 

"  Certainly.     At  what  hour  will  you  come  ?" 

"  We  hope,  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock.  Where 
is  your  place?" 

He  told  me  the  street  and  number.  By  this  time,  the 
Rebel  officers,  discovering  what  was  going  on,  grew  in 
dignant  and  very  profane.  They  peremptorily  ordered 
my  friend  into  the  street.  He  went  out  wearing  a  look  of 
mild  and  injured  innocence.  The  negro  had  shrewdly 
slipped  out  of  sight  the  moment  he  brought  us  together, 
and  thus  escaped  severe  punishment. 

The  officers  ordered  me  back  to  my  quarters,  and  as  I 
went  up  the  stairs,  I  heard  a  volley  of  oaths.  They  were 
not  especially  incensed  at  me,  recognizing  the  fact  that  a 
prisoner  under  guard  1ms  a  right  to  do  any  thing  he  can  ; 
but  were  indignant  and  chagrined  at  that  want  of  discipline 
which  permitted  an  inmate  of  the  safest  apartment  in  the 
Castle  to  pass  four  sentinels  to  the  street  door,  and  con 
verse  with  an  unauthorized  person. 

Ten  minutes  after,  a  boy  came  up  from  the  office, 
with  the  message — this  time  genuine — that  another  visitor 
wished  to  see  me.  I  went  down,  and  there,  immediately 
beyond  the  bars  through  which  we  were  allowed  to  com 
municate  with  outsiders,  I  saw  a  lady  who  called  me  by 
name.  I  did  not  recognize  her,  but  her  eyes  told  me  that 
she  was  a  friend.  A  Rebel  officer  was  standing  near,  to 
see  that  no  improper  communication  passed  between  us. 
She  conversed  upon  indifferent  subjects,  but  soon  found 
opportunity  for  saying :« 

"  I  am  the  wife  of  your  friend  who  has  just  left  you. 


1863.]  VISIT    FROM    A    FRIENDLY   WOMAN.  395 

« 

He  dared  not  come  again.  I  succeeded  in  obtaining  ad 
mission.  I  have  a  note  for  you.  I  cannot  give  it  to  you 
now,  for  this  officer  is  looking ;  but,  when  I  bid  you 
good-by,  I  will  slip  it  into  your  hand." 

The  letter  contained  the  warmest  protestations  of 
friendship,  saying: 

"We  will  do  any  thing  in  the  world  for  you.  You 
shall  have  shelter  at  our  house,  or,  if  you  think  that  too 
public,  at  any  house  you  choose  among  our  friends. 
We  will  find  you  the  best  pilot  in  Richmond  to  take  you 
through  the  lines.  We  will  give  you  clothing,  we  will 
give  you  money — every  thing  you  need.  If  you  wish, 
we  will  send  a  half  dozen  young  men  to  steal  up  in  front 
of  the  Castle  at  midnight ;  and,  for  a  moment,  to  throw  a 
blanket  over  the  head  of  each  of  the  sentinels  who  stand 
beside  the  door." 

At  one  o'clock  that  night,  the  Rebel  corporal  came  to 
our  door  and  said,  softly  : 

"All  things  are  ready;  I  have  my  four  men  at  the 
proper  posts  ;  we  can  pass  you  to  the  street  without  diffi 
culty.  Should  you  meet  any  pickets  beyond,  the  coun 
tersign  for  to-night  is  '  Shiloh.'  I  know  you  all,  and  im 
plicitly  trust  you ;  but  some  of  my  men  do  not,  and  be 
fore  passing  out  your  party  of  six,  they  want  to  see  that 
you  have  in  your  possession  the  money  you  propose  to 
give  us"  (seventy  dollars  in  United  States  currency,  to 
gether  with  two  gold  watches). 

This  request  was  reasonable,  and  Bulkley  handed  his 
portion  of  the  money  to  the  corporal.  A  moment  later 
he  returned  with  it  from  the  gas-light,  and  said  : 

' '  There  is  a  mistake  about  this.  Here  are  five  one- 
dollar  notes,  not  five-dollar  notes." 

My  friend  was  very  confidenf  there  was  no  error ;  and 
we  were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  guards  de- 


396  SHUT  UP  IN  A  CELL. 

signed  to  obtain  our  money  without  giving  us  our  lib 
erty.  So  the  plan  was  baffled. 

The  next  morning  proved  that  the  corporal  was  right. 
My  friend  had  offered  him  the  wrong  roll  of  notes. 
We  hoped  very  shortly  to  try  again,  but  considerable 
finessing  was  required  to  get  the  right  sentinels  upon  the 
right  posts.  Before  it  could  be  done  we  were  placed  in  a 
dungeon,  on  the  charge  of  attempting  to  escape.  We 
were  kept  there  ten  days. 

Our  fellows  in  confinement  were  the  burglars  and  con 
fidence  men — "lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort,"  without 
principle  or  refinement,  living  by  their  wits.  They 
frankly  related  many  of  their  experiences  in  enlisting  and 
re-enlisting  for  large  bounties  as  substitutes  in  the  Eebel 
service ;  decoying  negroes  from  their  masters,  and  then 
selling  them ;  stealing  horses,  etc.  But  they  treated  us 
with  personal  courtesy,  and  though  their  own  rations  were 
wretchedly  short,  never  molested  our  dried  beef,  hams, 
and  other  provisions,  which  any  night  they  could  safely 
have  purloined. 

Small-pox  was  very  prevalent  during  the  winter 
months.  An  Illinois  prisoner,  named  Putman,  had  a  re 
markable  experience.  He  was  first  vaccinated,  and  two 
or  three  days  after,  attacked  with  varioloid.  Just  as  he 
recovered  from  that,  he  was  taken  with  malignant  small 
pox,  while  the  vaccine  matter  was  still  working  in  his 
arm,  which  was  almost  an  unbroken  sore  from  elbow  to 
shoulder.  In  a  few  weeks  he  returned  to  the  prison  with 
pits  all  over  his  face  as  large  as  peas.  Small-pox  patients 
were  sometimes  kept  in  our  close  room  for  two  or  three 
days  after  the  eruptions  appeared.  One  of  my  own  mess 
mates  barely  survived  this  disease. 

We  were  allowed  to  purchase  whatever  supplies  the 
Richmond  market  afforded,  and  to  have  our  meals  pre- 


1863.]       STEALING  FROM  FLAG-OF-TRUCE  LETTERS.        397 

pared  in  the  prison  kitchen,  by  paying  the  old  negro  who 
presided  there.  These  were  privileges  enjoyed  by  none 
of  the  other  inmates.  Supplies  commanded  very  high 
prices  ;  it  was  a  favorite  jest  in  the  city,  that  the  people 
had  to  carry  money  in  their  baskets  and  bring  home  mar 
keting  in  their  porte-monnaies.  Our  mess  consisted  of  the 
four  correspondents  and  Mr.  Charles  Thompson,  a  citizen 
of  Connecticut,  whose  Democratic  proclivities,  age,  and 
gravity,  invariably  elected  him  spokesman  when  we 
wished  to  communicate  with  the  prison  authorities.  As 
they  regarded  us  with  special  hostility,  we  kept  in  the 
back-ground  ;  but  Mr.  Thompson' s  quiet  tenacity,  which 
no  refusal  could  dishearten,  and  the  "greenbacks"  which 
no  attaclie  could  resist,  secured  us  many  favors. 

Northern  letters  from  our  own  families  reached  us 
with  considerable  regularity.  Those  sent  by  other  per 
sons  were  mostly  withheld.  Robert  Ould,  the  Rebel 
Commissioner  of  Exchange,  with  petty  malignity,  never 
permitted  one  of  the  many  written  from  The  Tribune 
office  to  reach  us.  All  inclosures,  excepting  money,  and 
sometimes  including  it,  were  stolen  with  uniform  consis 
tency.  I  finally  wrote  upon  one  of  my  missives,  which 
was  to  go  North  : 

"  Will  the  person  who  systematically  abstracts  newspaper  slips, 
babies'  pictures,  and  postage-stamps  from  my  letters,  permit  the  in 
closed  little  poem  to  reach  its  destination,  unless  entirely  certain  that 
it  is  contraband  and  dangerous  to  the  public  service?" 

Apparently  a  little  ashamed,  the  Rebel  censor  there 
after  ceased  his  peculations. 

For  a  time,  boxes  of  supplies  from  the  North  were  for 
warded  to  us  with  fidelity  and  promptness.  Supposing 
that  this  could  not  last  long,  we  determined  to  make  hay 
while  the  sun  shone.  One  day,  dining  from  the  contents 


398          PAROLES  REPUDIATED  BY  THE  REBELS.         [ises. 

of  a  home  box,  in  cutting  through  the  butter,  my  knife 
struck  something  hard.  We  sounded,  and  brought  to 
the  surface  a  little  phial,  hermetically  sealed.  We 
opened  it,  and  there  found  "  greenbacks  !" 

Upon  that  hint  we  acted.  While  it  was  impossible  to 
obtain  letters  from  the  North,  we  could  always  smuggle 
them  thither  by  exchanged  prisoners,  who  would  sew 
them  up  in  their  clothing,  or  in  some  other  manner  con 
ceal  them.  We  immediately  began  to  send  many  orders 
for  boxes  ;  all  but  two  or  three  came  safely  to  hand, 
and  "  brought  forth  butter  in  a  lordly  dish."  Treasury 
notes  were  also  sent  bound  in  covers  of  books  so  deftly 
as  to  defy  detection.  One  of  my  messmates  thus  received 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  in  a  single  Bible.  The 
supplies  of  money,  obtained  in  this  manner,  lasted 
through  nearly  all  our  remaining  imprisonment,  and 
were  of  infinite  service. 

All  the  prisoners  who  were  taken  to  Richmond  with 
us  had  received  identically  the  same  paroles.  In  every 
case,  except  ours,  the  Rebels  recognized  the  paroles,  and 
sent  the  persons  holding  them  through  the  lines.  But 
they  utterly  disregarded  ours.  We  felt  it  a  sort  of  duty 
to  keep  them  occasionally  reminded  of  their  solemn,  deli 
berate,  written  obligation  to  us.  We  first  did  this 
through  our  attorney,  General  Humphrey  Marshall,  of 
Kentucky.  His  relations  with  Robert  Ould  were  very 
close.  Upon  receiving  heavy  fees  in  United  States  cur 
rency,  he  had  secured  the  release  of  several  citizens,  after 
all  other  endeavors  failed.  The  prisoners  believed  that 
Ould  shared  the  fees. 

General  Marshall  made  a  strong  statement  of  our  case 
in  writing,  adding  to  the  application  for  release  : 

"  I  am  instructed  by  these  gentlemen  not  to  ask  any  favors  at  your 


1863]         SENTENCED  TO  THE  SALISBURY  PRISON.          399 

hands,  but  to  enforce  their  clear,  legal,  unquestionable  rights  under  this 
parole." 

Commissioner  Ould  indorsed  upon  this  application 
that  he  repudiated  the  parole  altogether.  In  reporting 
to  us,  General  Marshall  said  : 

c '  I  don' t  feel  at  liberty  to  accept  a  fee  from  you,  "be 
cause  I  consider  your  case  hopeless." 

Early  in  the  new  year,  we  addressed  a  memorial  to 
Mr.  Seddon,  the  Rebel  Secretary  of  War,  in  which  we 
attempted  to  argue  the  case  upon  its  legal  merits,  and  to 
prove  what  a  flagrant,  atrocious  violation  of  official  faith 
was  involved  in  our  detention.  We  plumed  ourselves  a 
good  deal  on  our  legal  logic,  but  Mr.  Seddon  returned  a 
very  convincing  refutation  of  our  argument.  He  simply 
wrote  an  order  that  we  be  sent  to  the  Rebel  penitentiary 
at  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  to  be  held  until  the  end  of 
the  war,  as  hostages  for  Rebel  citizens  confined  in  the 
North,  and  for  the  general  good  conduct  of  our  Govern 
ment  toward  them  ! 

Like  the  historic  Roman,  content  to  be  refuted  by  an 
emperor  who  was  master  of  fifty  legions,  we  yielded 
gracefully  to  the  argument  of  the  Secretary  who  had  the 
whole  Confederate  army  at  his  back  ;  and  thus  we  were 
sent  to  Salisbury. 

On  the  night  before  our  departure,  the  warden,  a 
Maryland  refugee,  named  Wiley,  ordered  us  below  into 
a  very  filthy  apartment,  to  be  ready  for  the  morning 
train.  We  appealed  to  Captain  Richardson,  Command 
ant  of  the  Castle,  who,  countermanding  the  order,  permit 
ted  us  to  remain  in  our  own  more  comfortable  quarters 
during  the  night.  Ten  minutes  after,  one  of  the  little 
negroes  came  to  our  room,  and,  beckoning  me  to  bend 
down,  he  whispered : 

"  What  do  you  think  Mr.  Wiley  says  about  Captain 


400  "ABOLITIONISTS  BEFORE  THE  WAR." 

Richardson' s  letting  you  stay  here  to-night  ?  As  soon  as 
the  Captain  went  out,  he  said  :  '  It' s  a  shame  for  Rich 
ardson  and  Browne  to  receive  so  many  more  favors  than 
the  other  prisoners.  Why,  -  -  them,  they  were 

Abolitionists  before  the  war  !' ' 

On  the  way  to  Salisbury  we  were  very  closely 
guarded,  but  there  were  many  times  during  the  night  when 
we  might  easily  have  jumped  from  the  car  window. 

At  Raleigh,  a  pleasant  little  city  of  five  thousand 
people,  named  in  honor  of  the  great  Sir  Walter,  the 
temptation  was  very  strong.  In  the  confusion  and 
darkness  through  which  we  passed  from  one  train  to 
another,  we  might  easily  have  eluded  the  guards  ;  but 
we  were  feeble,  a  long  distance  from  our  army  lines,  and 
quite  unfamiliar  with  the  country.  It  was  a  golden  op 
portunity  neglected  ;  for  it  is  always  comparatively  easy 
for  captives  to  escape  while  in  transitu,  and  very  diffi 
cult  when  once  within  the  walls  of  a  military  prison. 

On  the  evening  of  February  3d  we  reached  Salis 
bury,  and  were  taken  to  the  Confederate  States 
Penitentiary.  It  was  a  brick  structure,  one  hundred 
feet  by  forty,  four  stories  in  hight,  originally  erected 
for  a  cotton-factory.  In  addition  to  the  main  build 
ing,  there  were  six  smaller  ones  of  brick,  which 
had  formerly  been  tenement  houses ;  and  a  new 
frame  hospital,  with  clean  hay  mattresses  for  forty 
patients.  The  buildings,  which  would  hold  about  five 
hundred  prisoners,  were  all  filled.  Confederate  convicts, 
Yankee  deserters,  about  twenty  enlisted  men  of  our 
navy  and  three  United  States  officers  confined  as  host 
ages,  one  hundred  and  fifty  Southern  Unionists,  and  fifty 
northern  citizens,  composed  the  inmates. 


1864.]  THE  OPEN  Am  AND  PURE  WATER.  401 


CHAPTER    XXXYI. 

The  miserable  have  no  other  medicine, 
But  only  hope. 

— MEASURE  FOR  MEASURE. 

Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseased, 
Pluck  from  the  memory  a  rooted  sorrow  ? 


—MACBETH. 


TRULY  saitli  the  Italian  proverb,  "There  are  no  ugly 
loves  and  no  handsome  prisons."  Still  we  found  Salis 
bury  comparatively  endurable.  Captain  Swift  Galloway, 
commanding,  though  a  hearty  Confederate,  was  kind  and 
courteous  to  the  captives.  Our  sleeping  apartment, 
crowded  with  uncleanly  men,  and  foul  with  the  vilest 
exhalations,  was  filthy  and  vermin-infested  beyond  de 
scription.  No  northern  farmer,  fit  to  be  a  northern 
farmer,  would  have  kept  his  horse  or  his  ox  in  it. 

But  the  yard  of  four  acres,  like  some  old  college 
grounds,  with  great  oak  trees  and  a  well  of  sweet,  pure 
water,  was  open  to  us  during  the  whole  day.  There,  the 
first  time  for  nine  months,  our  feet  pressed  the  mother 
earth,  and  the  blessed  open  air  fanned  our  cheeks. 

Mr.  Luke  Blackmer,  of  Salisbury,  kindly  placed  his 
library  of  several  thousand  volumes  at  our  disposal. 
Whenever  we  wished  for  books  we  had  only  to  address 
a  note  to  him,  through  the  prison  authorities,  and,  in  a 
few  hours,  a  little  negro  with  a  basket  of  them  on  his 
head  would  come  in  at  the  gate.  It  seemed  more  like 
life  and  less  like  the  tomb  than  any  prison  we  had  inhab 
ited  before. 

And  yet  those  long  Summer  months  were  very  dreary 
to  bear,  for  we  had  upon  us  the  one  heavy,  crushing 

26 


402       THE  CRUSHING  WEIGHT  OF  IMPRISONMENT.      [1864. 

weight  of  captivity.  It  is  not  hunger  or  cold,  sickness 
or  death,  which  makes  prison  life  so  hard  to  bear.  But  it 
is  the  utter  idleness,  emptiness,  aimlessness  of  such  a  life. 
It  is  being,  through  all  the  long  hours  of  each  day  and 
night — for  weeks,  months,  years,  if  one  lives  so  long — ab 
solutely  without  employment,  mental  or  physical — with 
nothing  to  fill  the  vacant  mind,  which  always  becomes 
morbid  and  turns  inward  to  prey  upon  itself. 

What  exile  from  his  country 
Can  flee  himself  as  well  ? 

It  was  doubtless  this  which  gave  us  the  look  peculiar 
to  the  captive — the  disturbed,  half- wild  expression  of  the 
eye,  the  contraction  of  the  wrinkled  brow  which  indicates 
trouble  at  the  heart. 

We  were  most  struck  with  this  in  the  morning,  when, 
on  first  going  out  of  our  sleeping  quarters,  we  passed 
down  by  the  hospital  and  stopped  beside  the  bench 
where  those  were  laid  who  had  died  during  the  night. 
As  we  lifted  the  cloth,  to  see  who  had  found  release, 
the  one  thing  which  always  impressed  me  was  the  perfect 
calm,  the  sweet,  ineffable  peace,  which  those  white,  thin 
faces  wore.  For  months  I  never  saw  it  without  a  twinge 
of  envy.  Until  then  I  never  felt  the  meaning  of  the 
words,  "where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  and  the 
weary  are  at  rest."  Until  then  I  never  realized  the 
wealth  of  the  assurance,  "  He  giveth  his  beloved  sleep." 

Some  prisoners  had  an  additional  weight  to  bear. 
They  were  southern  Unionists  —  Tennesseans,  North 
Carolinians,  West  Virginians,  and  Mississippians — whose 
families  lived  on  the  border.  They  knew  that  they  were 
liable  any  day  to  have  their  houses  robbed  or  burned  by 
the  enemy,  and  their  wives  and  little  ones  turned  out  to 
the  mercy  of  the  elements,  or  the  charity  of  friends. 


1864.]  BAD  NEWS  FROM  HOME,  403 

This  gnawing  anxiety  took  away  their  elasticity  and 
power  of  endurance.  They  had  far  less  capacity  for 
resisting  disease  and  hardship  than  the  northeners,  and 
died  in  the  proportion  of  four  or  five  to  one.  I  could 
hardly  wonder  at  the  fervor  with  which,  in  their  devo 
tional  exercises,  night  after  night,  they  sung  the  only 
hymn  which  they  ever  attempted : 

"  There  I  shall  bathe  my  weary  soul 

In  seas  of  heavenly  rest ; 
And  not  a  wave  of  trouble  roll 

Across  this  peaceful  breast." 

The  cup  of  others,  yet,  had  a  still  bitterer  ingredient, 
which  filled  it  to  overflowing.  I  wonder  profoundly 
that  any  one  drinking  of  it  ever  lived  to  tell  his  story. 
They  had  received  "bad  news  from  home — news  that 
those  nearest  and  dearest,  finding  their  load  of  life  too 
heavy,  had  laid  it  wearily  down.  During  the  long 
prison  hours,  such  had  nothing  to  think  of  but  the 
vacant  place,  the  hushed  voice,  and  the  desolate  hearth. 
Hope — the  one  thing  which  buoys  up  the  prisoner — was 
gone.  That  picture  of  home,  which  had  looked  before 
as  heaven  looks  to  the  enthusiastic  devotee,  was  for 
ever  darkened.  The  prisoner  knew  if  the  otherwise 
glad  hour  of  his  release  should  ever  come,  no  warmth 
of  welcome,  no  greeting  of  friendship,  no  rejoicing  of 
affection,  could  ever  replace  for  him  the  infinite  value 
of  the  love  he  had  lost. 

Early  in  the  Spring  we  were  delighted  to  learn  from 
Richmond  that  Colonel  Streight  had  succeeded  in  esca 
ping  from  Libby.  The  officers  constructed  a  long  tunnel, 
which  proved  a  perfect  success,  liberating  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  of  them.  Streight,  whose  proportions 
tended  toward  the  Falstaffian,  was  very  apprehensive 


404  THE  GREAT  LIBBY  TUNNEL.  [ise*. 

tliat  he  could  not  work  his  way  through  it.  Narrowly 
escaping  the  fate  of  the  greedy  fox  which  "  stuck  in  the 
hole,"  he  finally  squeezed  through.  The  Rebels  hated 
him  so  bitterly  that,  by  the  unanimous  wish  of  his  fellow- 
prisoners,  he  was  the  first  man  to  pass  out.  A  Union 
woman  of  Richmond  concealed  him  for  nearly  two 
weeks.  The  first  officers  who  reached  our  lines  an 
nounced  through  the  New  York  papers  that  Streight  had 
arrived  at  Fortress  Monroe.  This  caused  the  Richmond 
authorities  to  relinquish  their  search  ;  and  finally,  under 
a  skillful  pilot,  having  traveled  with  great  caution  for 
eleven  nights  to  accomplish  less  than  a  hundred  miles, 
Streight  reached  the  protection  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

Our  prison  rations  of  corn  bread  and  beef  were 
tolerable,  in  quantity  and  quality.  The  Salisbury  mar 
ket  also  afforded  a  few  articles,  of  which  eggs  were  the 
great  staple.  We  indulged  extravagantly  in  that  mild 
form  of  dissipation — our  mess  of  five  at  one  time  having 
on  hand  seventy-two  dozen,  which  represented,  in  Con 
federate  currency,  about  two  hundred  dollars. 

We  soon  made  the  acquaintance  of  several  loyal  North 
Carolinians.  Citizens  of  respectability  were  permitted  to 
visit  the  prison.  Those  of  Union  proclivities  invari 
ably  found  opportunity  to  converse  with  us.  Like  all 
Loyalists  of  the  South,  white  and  black,  they  trusted 
northern  prisoners  implicitly.  The  reign  of  terror  was  so 
great  that  they  often  feared  to  repose  confidence  in  each 
other,  and  cautioned  us  against  repeating  their  expres 
sions  of  loyalty  to  their  neighbors  and  friends,  whose 
Union  sympathies  were  just  as  strong  as  theirs. 

Captains  Julius  L.  Litchfield,  of  the  Fourth  Maine  In 
fantry,  Charles  Kendall,  of  the  Signal  Corps,  and  Edward 
E.  Chase,  of  the  First  Rhode  Island  Cavalry,  were  impris 
oned  in  the  upper  room  of  the  factory.  Held  as  hostages 


1864.]      HORRIBLE  SUFFERINGS  OF  UNION  OFFICERS.      405 

for  certain  Rebel  officers  in  the  Alton,  Illinois,  peniten 
tiary,  they  were  sentenced  to  confinement  and  hard  labor 
during  the  war.  In  one  instance  only  was  the  hard  labor 
imposed.  Ift  the  prison  yard  they  were  ordered  to  re 
move  several  heavy  stones  a  few  yards  and  then  carry 
them  back.  For  some  minutes  they  stood  beside  the 
Rebel  sergeant,  silently  and  with  folded  arms.  Then 
Chase  thus  instructed  the  guard : 

"  Go  to  Captain  Galloway,  and  tell  him,  with  my  com 
pliments,  that  perhaps  I  was  just  as  delicately  nurtured 
as  he — that,  if  he  were  in  my  place,  he  would  hardly  do 
this  work,  and  that  I  will  see  the  whole  Confederacy  in 
the  Bottomless  Pit  before  I  lift  a  single  stone  !" 

Chase  and  his  comrades  were  never  afterward  ordered 
to  labor.  Other  Union  officers,  held  as  hostages,  arrived 
from  time  to  time.  Eight,  who  came  from  Richmond, 
had  been  confined  one  hundred  and  forty -five  days  in 
that  horrible  Libby  cell  where  the  mold  accumulated  on 
the  beard  of  the  Pennsylvania  lieutenant.  While  there 
they  suffered  intensely  from  cold,  ate  daily  all  their  scanty 
ration  the  moment  it  was  issued,  and  were  compelled  to 
fast  for  the  rest  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  save  when  they 
could  catch  rats,  which  they  eagerly  devoured.  Some 
came  out  with  broken  constitutions,  and  all  were  fright 
fully  pallid  and  emaciated.  Starving  and  freezing  are 
words  easily  said,  but  these  gentlemen  learned  their 
actual  significance. 

Four  of  them  were  held  for  Kentucky  bushwhackers, 
whom  one  of  our  military  courts  had  sentenced  to  death, 
which  they  clearly  deserved  under  well-defined  laws  of 
war.  Had  they  been  promptly  executed,  the  Rebels 
would  never  have  dared,  in  retaliation,  to  hurt  the  hair 
of  a  prisoner's  head.  But  Mr.  Lincoln's  kindness  of 
heart  induced  him  to  commute  their  sentence  to  imprison- 


406  A  COOL  METHOD  OF  ESCAPE.  [1864. 

ment,  and  made  him  unwittingly  the  cause  of  this  "bar 
barity  toward  our  own  officers. 

The  hostages  were  plucky  and  enterprising,  fre 
quently  attempting  to  escape.  One  night  they  suspend 
ed  from  their  fourth-story  window  a  rope  which  they 
had  constructed  of  blankets.  Captain  lyes,  of  the  Tenth 
Massachusetts  Infantry,  descended  in  safety.  A  daring 
and  loyal  Rebel  deserter,  from  East  Tennessee,  named 
Carroll,  who  designed  to  pilot  them  to  our  lines,  attempted 
to  follow  ;  but  the  rope  broke,  and  he  fell  the  whole  dis 
tance,  striking  upon  his  head.  It  would  have  killed 
most  men ;  but  Carroll,  after  spending  the  night  in  the 
guard-house,  bathed  his  swollen  head  and  troubled  him 
self  no  further  about  the  matter. 

Captain  B.  C.  G.  Reed,  from  Zanesyille,  Ohio,  was 
constantly  trying  to  secure  his  own  release.  It  always 
seemed  to  make  him  unhappy  when  he  passed  two  or 
three  weeks  without  making  attempts  to  escape.  They 
usiially  resulted  in  his  being  hand-cuifed  and  ballasted 
"by  a  ball  and  chain,  or  confined  in  a  filthy  cell. 

But,  sooner  or  later,  perseverance  achieves.  Once, 
while  so  weak  from  inflammatory  rheumatism,  contracted 
in  a  Richmond  dungeon,  that  he  could  hardly  walk,  he 
made  a  successful  endeavor,  in  company  with  Captain 
Litchfield.  At  nine  o'clock,  on  a  rainy  March  night,  with 
their  blankets  wrapped  about  them,  they  coolly  walked 
up  to  the  gate.  They  rebuked  the  guard  who  halted 
them,  indignantly  asking  him  if  he  did  not  know  that 
they  belonged  at  head-quarters !  Impudence  won  the 
day.  The  innocent  sentinel  permitted  them  to  pass. 
They  went  directly  through  Captain  Galloway' s  office, 
which  fortunately  happened  to  be  empty  ;  reached  the 
outer  fence  ;  Litchfield  helped  over  his  weak  companion, 
and  the  world  was  all  before  them,  where  to  choose. 


1864.]       CAPTURED  THROUGH  AN  OBSTINATE  MULE.       407 

They  traveled  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  Tbut,  in 
the  mountains  of  East  Tennessee,  were  recaptured  and 
"brought  back. 

Nothing  daunted,  Reed  repeated  the  attempt  again 
and  again.  Finally,  he  jumped  from  a  train  of  cars  in 
the  city  of  Charleston,  found  a  negro  who  secreted  him, 
and  by  night  conveyed  him  in  a  skiff  to  our  forces  at 
Battery  Wagner.  Reed  returned  to  his  command  in 
Thomas' s  Army,  and  was  subsequently  killed  in  one  of 
the  battles  before  Nashville.  Entering  the  service  as  a 
private,  and  fairly  winning  promotion,  he  was  an  excel 
lent  type  of  the  thinking  bayonets,  of  the  young  men  who 
freely  gave  their  lives  "for  our  dear  country's  sake." 

Early  in  the  summer,  our  mess  was  agreeably  en 
larged  by  the  arrival  of  Mr.  William  E.  Davis,  Corre 
spondent  of  The  Cincinnati  Gazette  and  Clerk  of  the  Ohio 
Senate.  Davis  owed  his  capture  to  the  stupidity  of  a 
mule.  Riding  leisurely  along  a  road  within  the  lines  of 
General  Sherman's  army,  more  than  a  mile  from  the  front, 
he  was  compelled  to  pass  through  a  little  gap  left 
between  two  corps,  which  had  not  quite  connected.  He 
was  suddenly  confronted  by  a  double-barreled  shot-gun, 
presented  by  a  Rebel  standing  behind  a  tree,  who  com 
manded  him  to  halt,  Not  easily  intimidated,  Davis 
attempted  to  turn  his  mule  and  ride  for  a  life  and  liberty. 
With  the  true  instinct  of  his  race,  the  animal  resisted  the 
rein,  seeming  to  require  a  ten-acre  lot  and  three  days  for 
turning  around — wherefore  the  rider  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Philistines. 

Books  whiled  away  many  weary  hours.  As  Edmond 
Dantes,  in  the  Count  of  Monte  Christo,  came  out  from  his 
twelve  years  of  imprisonment  "  a  very  well-read  man," 
we  ought  to  have  acquired  limitless  lore  ;  but  reading  at 
last  palled  upon  our  tastes,  and  we  would  none  of  it. 


408  CONCEALING  MONEY  WHEN  SEARCHED.         [1864. 

Our  Salisbury  friends  supplied  us  liberally  with 
money.  The  editors  of  the  migratory  Memphis  Appeal 
frequently  offered  to  me  any  amount  which  I  might 
desire,  and  made  many  attempts  to  secure  my  exchange. 

The  prison  authorities  sometimes  searched  us ;  "but 
friendly  guards,  or  officers  of  Union  proclivities,  would 
always  give  us  timely  notice,  enabling  us  to  secrete  our 
money.  One  (nominally)  Rebel  lieutenant,  after  we  were 
drawn  up  in  line  and  the  searching  had  begun,  would 
sometimes  receive  bank-notes  from  us,  and  hand  them 
back  when  we  were  returned  to  our  own  quarters. 

Once,  as  we  were  being  examined,  I  had  forty  dollars, 
in  United  States  currency,  concealed  in  my  hat.  That 
was  an  article  of  dress  which  had  never  been  examined. 
But  now,  looking  down  the  line,  I  saw  the  guard  sud 
denly  commence  taking  off  the  prisoners'  hats,  carefully 
scrutinizing  them.  Removing  the  money  from  mine,  I 
handed  it  to  Lieutenant  Holman,  of  Vermont ;  but,  turn 
ing  around,  I  observed  that  two  Rebel,  officers  imme 
diately  behind  us  had  witnessed  the  movement.  Holman 
promptly  passed  the  notes  to  "  Junius,"  who  stood  near, 
reading  a  ponderous  volume,  and  who  placed  them  be 
tween  the  leaves  of  his  book.  Holman  was  at  once 
taken  from  the  line  and  searched  rigorously  from  head 
to  foot,  but  the  Rebels  were  unable  to  find  the  coveted 
"greenbacks." 

The  prison  officers,  under  rigid  orders  from  the  Rich 
mond  authorities,  would  sometimes  retain  money  re 
ceived  by  mail.  Two  hundred  dollars  in  Confederate 
notes  were  thus  withheld  from  me  for  more  than  a 
year.  Determined  that  the  Rebel  officials  should  not 
enjoy  much  peace  of  mind,  I  addressed  them  letter  after 
letter,  reciting  their  various  subterfuges.  At  last,  upon 
my  demanding  that  they  should  either  give  me  the 


1864]  ATTEMPTS  TO  ESCAPE  FRUSTRATED.  409 

money,  or  refuse  positively  over  their  own  signatures, 
the  amount  was  forthcoming.  Thousands  of  dollars 
belonging  to  prisoners  were  confiscated  upon  frivolous 
pretexts,  or  no  pretext  whatever. 

Persistent  ill-fortune  still  followed  all  our  attempts 
to  escape.  Once  we  perfected  an  arrangement  with  a 
friendly  guard,  by  which,  at  midnight,  he  was  to  pass  us 
over  the  fence  upon  his  beat.  Before  our  quarters  were 
locked  for  the  night,  "  Junius"  and  myself  hid  under  the 
hospital,  where,  through  the  faithful  sentinel,  escape 
would  be  certain.  But  just  then,  we  chanced  to  be  nearly 
without  money,  and  Davis  waited  for  a  Union  attache 
of  the  prison  to  bring  him  four  hundred  dollars  from  a 
friend  outside.  The  messenger,  for  the  first  and  last  time 
in  eleven  months,  becoming  intoxicated  that  afternoon, 
arrived  with  the  money  five  minutes  too  late.  Davis 
was  unable  to  join  us ;  we  determined  not  to  leave  him, 
expecting  to  repeat  the  attempt  on  the  following  night ; 
but  the  next  day  the  guard  was  conscribed  and  sent  to 
Lee's  army. 

These  constant  failures  subjected  us  to  many  jests 
from  our  fellow- prisoners.  Once,  in  a  dog-day  freak, 
"Junius"  had  every  hair  shaved  from  his  head,  leaving 
his  pallid  face  diversified  only  by  a  great  German  mus 
tache.  He  replied  to  all  badinage  that  he  was  not  the 
correspondent  for  whom  his  interlocutors  mistook  him, 
but  the  venerable  and  famous  Chinaman  "No-Go." 

The  Yankee  deserters,  having  no  friends  to  protect 
them,  were  treated  with  great  harshness.  During  a  single 
day  six  were  tied  up  to  a  post  and  received,  in  the  aggre 
gate,  one  hundred  and  twenty- seven  lashes  with  the  cat- 
o' nine-tails  upon  their  bare  backs,  as  punishment  for 
digging  a  tunnel.  Many  of  them  were  "  bounty -jumpers' ' 
and  desperadoes.  They  robbed  each  newly-arriving 


410      YANKEE  DESERTERS  WHIPPED  AND  HANGED.      [1864. 

deserter  of  all  liis  money,  beating  him  unmercifully  if 
he  resisted.  After  being  thus  whipped,  at  their  own 
request  their  status  was  changed,  and  they  were  sent  as 
prisoners  of  war  to  Andersonville,  Georgia.  There  the 
Union  prisoners,  detecting  them  in  several  robberies  and 
murders,  organized  a  court-martial,  tried  them,  and  hung 
six  of  them  upon  trees  within  the  garrison,  with  ropes 
furnished  by  the  Rebel  commandant. 

For  seven  months  no  letters,  even  from  our  own  fami 
lies,  were  permitted  to  reach  us.  This  added  much  to  our 
weariness.  I  never  knew  the  pathos  of  Sterne' s  simple 
story  until  I  heard  "Junius"  read  it  one  sad  Summer 
night  in  our  'prison  quarters.  For  weeks  afterward 
rung  in  my  ears  the  cry  of  the  poor  starling :  "I  can't 
get  out !  I  can't  get  outl" 


1864.]  GllEAT    INFLUX   OF    PiUSONEllS.        •  411 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 


Not  a  soul 

But  felt  a  fever  of  the  mad,  and  played 
Some  tricks  of  desperation. 

— TEMPEST. 

All  trouble,  torment,  wonder,  and  amazement 
Inhabit  here. 

— IBID. 


EAELY  in  October,  the  condition  of  the  Salisbury  gar 
rison  suddenly  changed.  Nearly  ten  thousand  prisoners 
of  war,  half  naked  and  without  shelter,  were  crowded 
into  its  narrow  limits,  which  could  not  reasonably  accom- 
.modate  more  than  six  hundred.  It  was  converted  into  a 
scene  of  suffering  and  death  which  no  pen  can  adequate 
ly  describe.  For  every  hour,  day  and  night,  we  were 
surrounded  by  horrors  which  burned  into  our  memories 
like  a  hot  iron. 

We  had  never  before  been  in  a  prison  containing  our 
private  soldiers.  In  spite  of  many  assurances  to  the 
contrary,  we  had  been  skeptical  as  to  the  barbarities 
which  they  were  said  to  suifer  at  Belle  Isle  and  Ander- 
sonville.  We  could  not  believe  that  men  bearing  the 
American  name  would  be  guilty  of  such  atrocities.  IN'ow, 
looking  calmly  upon  our  last  two  months  in  Salisbury,  it 
seems  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the  incredible  cruelty 
of  the  Rebel  authorities. 

When  captured,  the  prisoners  were  robbed  of  the 
greater  part  of  their  clothing.  When  they  reached  Salis 
bury,  all  were  thinly  clad,  thousands  were  barefooted, 
not  one  in  twenty  had  an  overcoat  or  blanket,  and  many 
hundreds  were  without  coats  or  blouses. 


412  STARVING  IN  THE  MIDST  OF  FOOD. 

For  several  weeks,  they  were  furnished  with  no  shel 
ter  whatever.  Afterward,  one  Sibley  tent  and  one  A 
tent  was  issued  to  each  hundred  men.  With  the  closest 
crowding,  these  contained  about  one-half  of  them.  The 
rest  burrowed  in  the  earth,  crept  under  buildings,  or 
dragged  out  the  nights  in  the  open  air  upon  the  muddy, 
snowy,  or  frozen  ground.  In  October,  November,  and. 
December,  snow  fell  several  times.  It  was  piteous  be 
yond  description  to  see  the  poor  fellows,  coatless,  hat- 
less,  and  shoeless,  shivering  about  the  yard. 

They  were  organized  into  divisions  of  one  thousand, 
each,  and  subdivided  into  squads  of  one  hundred.  Al 
most  daily  one  or  more  divisions  was  without  food  for 
twenty-four  hours.  Several  times  some  of  them  received 
no  rations  for  forty -eight  hours.  The  few  who  had 
money,  paid  from  five  to  twenty  dollars,  in  Rebel  cur 
rency,  for  a  little  loaf  of  bread.  Some  sold  the  coats 
from  their  backs  and  the  shoes  from  their  feet  to  pur^ 
chase  food. 

When  a  subordinate  asked  the  post- Commandant, 
Major  John  H.  Gee,  "  Shall  I  give  the  prisoners  full  ra 
tions?"  he  replied:  "No,  G — d  d — n  them,  give  them 
quarter- rations !" 

Yet,  at  this  very  time,  one  of  our  Salisbury  friends, 
a  trustworthy  and  Christian  gentleman,  assured  us,  in  a 
stolen  interview : 

"  It  is  within  my  personal  knowledge  that  the  great 
commissary  warehouse,  in  this  town,  is  filled  to  the  roof 
with  corn  and  pork.  I  know  that  the  prison  commis 
sary  finds  it  difficult  to  obtain  storage  for  his  supplies." 

After  our  escape,  we  learned  from  personal  observa 
tion  that  the  region  abounded  in  corn  and  pork.  Salis 
bury  was  a  general  depot  for  army  supplies. 

That  section  of  country  is  densely  wooded.     The  cars 


1864.]  FREEZING  IN  THE  MIDST  OF  FUEL.  413 

"brought  fuel  to  the  door  of  our  prison.  If  the  Rebels 
were  short  of  tents,  they  might  easily  have  paroled  two 
or  three  hundred  prisoners,  to  go  out  and  cut  logs,  with 
which,  in  a  single  week,  barracks  could  have  been  con 
structed  for  every  captive  ;  but  the  Commandant  would 
not  consent.  He  did  not  even  furnish  half  the  needed 
fuel. 

Cold  and  hunger  began  to  tell  fearfully  upon  the 
robust  young  men,  fresh  from  the  field,  who  crowded 
the  prison.  Sickness  was  very  prevalent  and  very 
fatal.  It  invariably  appeared  in  the  form  of  pneumonia, 
catarrh,  diarrhoea,  or  dysentery ;  but  was  directly  trace 
able  to  freezing  and  starvation.  Therefore  the  medi 
cines  were  of  little  avail.  The  weakened  men  were 
powerless  to  resist  disease,  and  they  were  carried  to  the 
dead-house  in  appalling  numbers. 

By  appointment  of  the  prison  authorities,  my  two 
comrades  and  myself  were  placed  in  charge  of  all  the 
hospitals,  nine  in  number,  inside  the  garrison.  The 
scenes  which  constantly  surrounded  us  were  enough  to 
shake  the  firmest  nerves ;  but  there  was  work  to  be 
done  for  the  relief  of  our  suffering  companions.  We 
could  accomplish  very  little — hardly  more  than  to  give  a 
cup  of  cold  water,  and  see  that  the  patients  were  treated 
with  sympathy  and  kindness. 

Mr.  Davis  was  general  superintendent,  and  brought 
to  his  arduous  duties  good  judgment,  untiring  industry, 
and  uniform  kindness. 

"Junius"  was  charged  with  supplying  medicines  to 
the  "  out-door  patients."  The  hospitals,  when  crowded, 
would  hold  about  six  hundred ;  but  there  were  always 
many  more  invalids  unable  to  obtain  admission.  These 
wretched  men  waited  wearily  for  death  in  their  tents, 
in  subterranean  holes,  under  hospitals,  or  in  the  open 


414         REBEL  SURGEONS  GENERALLY  HUMANE.         [1864. 

air.  My  comrade's  tender  sympathy  softened  the  last 
hours  of  many  a  poor  fellow  who  had  long  been  a  stran 
ger  to 

"The  falling  music  of  a  gracious  word, 
Or  the  stray  sunshine  of  a  smile." 

I  was  appointed  to  supervise  all  the  hospital  books, 
keeping  a  record  of  each  patient's  name,  disease,  ad 
mission,  and  discharge  or  death.  At  my  own  solici 
tation,  the  Rebel  surgeon-in-chief  also  authorized  me  to 
receive  the  clothing  left  by  the  dead,  and  re-issue  it 
among  the  living.  I  endeavored  to  do  this  systemati 
cally,  keeping  lists  of  the  needy,  who  indeed  were  nine- 
tenths  of  all  the  prisoners.  The  deaths  ranged  from 
twenty  to  forty-eight  daily,  leaving  many  garments  to  be 
distributed.  Bay  after  day,  in  bitterly  cold  weather, 
pale,  fragile  boys,  who  should  have  been  at  home  with 
their  mothers  and  sisters,  came  to  me  with  no  clothing 
whatever,  except  a  pair  of  worn  cotton  pantaloons  and 
a  thin  cotton  shirt. 

Dr.  Richard  O.  Currey,  a  refugee  from  Knoxville, 
was  the  surgeon  in  charge.  Though  a  genuine  Rebel, 
he  was  just  and  kind-hearted,  doing  his  utmost  to  change 
the  horrible  condition  of  affairs.  Again  and  again  he 
sent  written  protests  to  Richmond,  which  brought  sev 
eral  successive  inspectors  to  examine  the  prison  and  hos 
pitals,  but  no  change  of  treatment. 

We  were  reluctantly  driven  to  the  belief  that  the 
Richmond  authorities  deliberately  adopted  this  plan  to 
reduce  the  strength  of  our  armies.  The  Medusa  head  of 
Slavery  had  turned  their  hearts  to  stone.  At  this  time, 
they  held  nearly  forty  thousand  prisoners.  In  our  gar 
rison  the  inmates  were  dying  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  per 
cent,  a  month  upon  the  aggregate.  About  as  many  more 
were  enlisting  in  the  Rebel  army.  Thus  our  soldiers 


1864.]          TERRIBLE  SCENES  IN  TUB  HOSPITALS.  415 

were  destroyed  at  the  rate  of  more  than  twenty -five  per 
cent,  a  month,  with  no  corresponding  loss  to  the  enemy. 

Frequently,  for  two  or  three  days,  Dr.  Currey  would 
refrain  from  entering  the  garrison,  reluctant  to  look  upon 
the  revolting  scenes  from  which  we  could  find  no  escape. 
I  am  glad  to  "be  able  to  throw  one  ray  of  light  into  so 
dark  a  picture.  Nearly  all  the  surgeons  evinced  that 
humanity  which  ought  to  characterize  their  profession. 
They  were  much  the  "best  class  of  Rebels  we  encoun 
tered.  They  denounced  unsparingly  the  manner  in 
which  prisoners  were  treated,  and  endeavored  to  mitigate 
their  sufferings. 

To  call  the  foul  pens,  where  the  patients  were  confined, 
" hospitals,7'  was  a  perversion  of  the  English  tongue. 
We  could  not  obtain  brooms  to  keep  them  clean ;  we 
could  not  get  cold  water  to  wash  the  hands  and  faces  of 
those  sick  and  dying  men.  In  that  region,  where  every 
farmer' s  barn-yard  contained  grain-stacks,  we  could  not 
procure  clean  straw  enough  to  place  under  them.  More 
than  half  the  time  they  were  compelled  to  lie  huddled 
upon  the  cold,  naked,  filthy  floors,  without  even  that 
degree  of  warmth  and  cleanliness  usually  afforded  to 
brutes.  The  wasted  forms  and  sad,  pleading  eyes  of 
those  sufferers,  waiting  wearily  for  the  tide  of  life  to  ebb 
away — without  the  commonest  comforts,  without  one 
word  of  sympathy,  or  one  tear  of  affection — will  never 
cease  to  haunt  me. 

At  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night,  on  every  side,  we 
heard  the  terrible  hack !  hack !  hack !  in  whose  pneu 
monic  tones  every  prisoner  seemed  to  be  coughing  his 
life  away.  It  was  the  most  fearful  sound  in  that  fearful 
place. 

The  last  scene  of  all  was  the  dead-cart,  with  its 
rigid  forms  piled  upon  each  other  like  logs — the  arms 


416  THE  RATTLING  BE  AD- CART.  [is  64 

swaying,  the  white  ghastly  faces  staring,  with  dropped 
jaws  and  stony  eyes — while  it  rattled  along,  "bearing  its 
precious  freight  just  outside  the  walls,  to  be  thrown  in  a 
mass  into  trenches  and  covered  with  a  little  earth. 

When  received,  there  were  no  sick  or  wounded  men 
among  the  prisoners.  But  before  they  had  been  in 
Salisbury  six  weeks,  uJunius,"  with  better  facilities 
for  knowing  than  any  one  else,  insisted  that  among  eight 
thousand  there  were  not  five  hundred  well  men.  The 
Rebel  surgeons  coincided  in  this  belief. 

The  rations,  issued  very  irregularly,  were  insufficient 
to  support  life.  Men  grew  feeble  before  living  upon 
them  a  single  week  ;  but  could  not  buy  food  from  the 
town  ;  and  were  not  permitted  to  receive  even  a  meal 
sent  by  friends  from  the  outside.  Our  positions  in  the 
hospitals  enabled  us  to  purchase  supplies  and  fare  bet 
ter.  Prisoners  eagerly  devoured  the  potato-skins  from 
our  table.  They  ate  rats,  dogs,  and  cats.  Many  searched 
the  yard  for  bones  and  scraps  among  the  most  revolting 
substances. 

They  constantly  besieged  us  for  admission  to  the  hos 
pitals,  or  for  shelter  and  food,  which  we  were  unable  to 
give.  It  seemed  almost  sinful  for  us  to  enjoy  protection 
from  the  weather  and  food  enough  to  support  life  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  distress. 

On  wet  days  the  mud  was  very  deep,  and  the  shoe 
less  wretches  wallowed  pitifully  through  it,  seeking 
vainly  for  cover  and  warmth.  Two  hundred  negro  pris 
oners  were  almost  naked,  and  could  find  no  shelter  what 
ever  except  by  burrowing  in  the  earth.  The  authori 
ties  treated  them  with  unusual  rigor,  and  guards  mur 
dered  them  with  impunity. 

JSTo  song,  no  athletic  game,  few  sounds  of  laughter 
broke  the  silence  of  the  garrison.  It  was  a  Hall  of  Eb- 


18G4.)  CKEDULITY  OF  OUR  GOVERNMENT.  417 

lis — devoid  of  its  gold-"besprinkled  pavements,  crystal 
vases,  and  dazzling  saloons ;  but  with  all  its  oppressive 
silence,  livid  lips,  sunken  eyes,  and  ghastly  figures,  at 
whose  hearts  the  consuming  fire  was  never  quenched. 

Constant  association  with  suffering  deadened  our  sen 
sibilities.  We  were  soon  able  to  pass  through  the  hos 
pitals  little  moved  by  their  terrible  spectacles,  except 
when  patients  addressed  us,  exciting  a  personal  in 
terest. 

The  credulity  and  trustfulness  of  our  Government 
toward  the  enemy  passed  belief.  Month  after  month  it 
sent  by  the  truce-boats  many  tons  of  private  boxes  for 
Union  prisoners,  while  the  Rebels,  not  satisfied  with 
their  usual  practice  of  stealing  a  portion  under  the  rose, 
upon  one  trivial  pretext  or  other,  openly  confiscated 
every  pound  of  them.  At  the  same  time,  returning 
truce-boats  were  loaded  with  boxes  sent  to  Rebel  pris 
oners  from  their  friends  in  the  South,  and  express-lines 
crowded  with  supplies  from  their  sympathizers  in  the 
North. 

The  Government  held  a  large  excess  of  prisoners, 
and  the  Rebels  were  anxious  to  exchange  man  for  man ; 
but  our  authorities  acted  upon  the  cold-blooded  theory 
of  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  that  we  could 
not  afford  to  give  well-fed,  rugged  men,  for  invalids  and 
skeletons — that  returned  prisoners  were  infinitely  more 
valuable  to  the  Rebels  than  to  us,  because  their  soldiers 
were  inexorably  kept  in  the  army,  while  many  of  ours, 
whose  terms  of  service  had  expired,  would  not  re-enlist. 

The  private  soldier  who  neglects  his  duty  is  taken 
out  and  shot.  Officials  seemed  to  forget  that  the  soldier' s 
obligation  of  obedience  devolves  upon  the  Government 
the  obligation  of  protection.  It  was  clearly  the  duty  of 
our  authorities  either  to  exchange  our  own  soldiers,  or 


418     GENERAL  BUTLER'S  EXAMPLE  OF  RETALIATION.     [1864. 

to  protect  them — not  "by  indiscriminate  cruelty,  "but  "by 
well-considered,  systematic  retaliation  in  kind,  until  the 
Richmond  authorities  should  treat  prisoners  with  ordi 
nary  humanity.  It  was  very  easy  to  select  a  number  of 
Rebel  officers,  corresponding  to  the  Union  prisoners  in 
the  Salisbury  garrison,  and  give  them  precisely  the  same 
kind  and  amount  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter. 

When  the  Confederate  Government  placed  certain  of 
our  negro  prisoners  under  fire,  at  work  upon  the  forti 
fications  of  Richmond,  General  Butler,  in  a  brief  letter, 
informed  them  that  he  had  stationed  an  equal  num 
ber  of  Rebel  officers,  equally  exposed  and  spade  in 
hand,  upon  Ms  fortifications.  When  his  letter  reached 
Richmond,  before  that  day's  sun  went  down,  the  negroes 
were  returned  to  Libby  Prison  and  ever  afterward  treat 
ed  as  prisoners  of  war.  But,  by  the  mawkish  sensibili 
ties  of  a  few  northern  statesmen  and  editors,  our  Gov 
ernment  was  encouraged  to  neglect  the  matter,  and  thus 
permitted  the  needless  murder  of  its  own  soldiers — a 
stain  upon  the  nation's  honor,  and  an  inexcusable  cruelty 
to  thousands  of  aching  hearts. 


1864.  j         ATTEMPTED  OUTBREAK  AND  MASSACRE.          419 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

I  have  supped  full  with  horrors. 

— MACBETH. 

The  weariest  and  most  loathed  worldly  life 
That  ache,  age,  penury  and  imprisonment 
Can  lay  on  nature. 

—MEASURE  FOB  MKASUEK. 

the  26th  of  November,  while  we  were  sitting  at 
dinner,  John  Lovell  came  up  from  the  yard  and  whisper 
ed  me  : 

"  There  is  to  "be  an  insurrection.  The  prisoners  are 
preparing  to  "break  out." 

We  had  heard  similar  reports  so  frequently  as  to 
lose  all  faith  in  them  ;  but  this  was  true.  Without  de 
liberation  or  concert  of  action,  upon  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  a  portion  of  the  prisoners  acted.  Suffering  greatly 
from  hunger,  many  having  received  no  food  for  forty- 
eight  hours,  they  said : 

"Let  us  break  out  of  this  horrible  place.  We  may 
just  as  well  die  upon  the  guns  of  the  guards  as  by  slow 
starvation." 

A  number,  armed  with  clubs,  sprang  upon  a  Rebel 
relief  of  sixteen  men,  just  entering  the  yard.  Though 
weak  and  emaciated,  these  prisoners  performed  their  part 
promptly  and  gallantly.  Man  for  man,  they  wrenched 
the  guns  from  the  soldiers.  One  Rebel  resisted  and  was 
bayoneted  where  he  stood.  Instantly,  the  building 
against  which  he  leaned  was  reddened  by  a  great  stain 
of  blood.  Another  raised  his  musket,  but,  before  he 
could  fire,  fell  to  the  ground,  shot  through  the  head. 


420  COLD-BLOODED  MURDERS  FREQUENT.  [1864. 

Every  gun  was  taken  from  the  terrified  relief,  who  im 
mediately  ran  back  to  their  camp,  outside. 

Had  parties  of  four  or  five  hundred  then  rushed  at  the 
fence  in  half  a  dozen  different  places,  they  might  have 
confused  the  guards,  and  somewhere  made  an  opening. 
But  some  thousands  ran  to  it  at  one  point  only.  Having 
neither  crow-bars  nor  axes  they  could  not  readily  effect 
a  breach.  At  once  every  musket  in  the  garrison  was 
turned  upon  them.  Two  field-pieces  opened  with  grape 
and  canister.  The  insurrection — which  had  not  occu 
pied  more  than  three  minutes — was  a  failure,  and  the 
uninjured  at  once  returned  to  their  quarters. 

The  yard  was  now  perfectly  quiet.  The  portion  of  it 
which  we  occupied  was  several  hundred  yards  from  the 
scene  of  the  melee.  In  our  vicinity  there  had  been  no  dis 
turbance  whatever  ;  yet  the  guards  stood  upon  the  fence 
for  twenty  minutes,  with  deliberate  aim  firing  into  the 
tents,  upon  helpless  and  innocent  men.  Several  prison 
ers  were  killed  within  a  dozen  yards  of  our  building. 
One  was  wounded  while  leaning  against  it.  The  bullets 
rattled  against  the  logs,  but  none  chanced  to  pass 
through  the  wide  apertures  between  them,  and  enter  our 
apartment.  Sixteen  prisoners  were  killed  and  sixty 
wounded,  of  whom  not  one  in  ten  had  participated  in  the 
outbreak  ;  while  most  were  ignorant  of  it  until  they 
heard  the  guns. 

After  this  massacre,  cold-blooded  murders  were  very 
frequent.  Any  guard,  standing  upon  the  fence,  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  or  night,  could  deliberately  raise  his 
musket  and  shoot  into  any  group  of  prisoners,  black  or 
white,  without  the  slightest  rebuke  from  the  authori 
ties.  He  'would  not  even  be  taken  off  his  post  for  it. 

One  Union  officer  was  thus  killed  when  there  could 
be  no  pretext  that  he  was  violating  any  prison  rule, 


1864]      HOSTILITY  TO  "  TRIBUNE"  CORRESPONDENTS.       421 

Moses  Smith,  a  negro  soldier  of  the  Seventh  Maryland 
Infantry,  was  shot  through  the  head  while  standing  inof 
fensively  beside  my  own  quarters,  conversing  with  John 
Lovell.  One  of  many  instances  was  that  of  two  white 
Connecticut  soldiers  who  were  shot  within  their  tents. 
We  induced  one  of  the  surgeons  to  inquire  at  head 
quarters  the  cause  of  the  homicide.  The  answer  received 
was,  that  the  guard  saw  three  negroes  in  range,  and, 
knowing  he  would  never  have  so  good  an  opportunity 
again,  fired  a,t  them,  "but  missed  aim  and  killed  the 
wrong  men !  It  seemed  to  "be  regarded  as  a  harmless 
jest. 

Though  my  comrades  and  myself,  either  "by  finesse  or 
"bribery,  often  succeeded  in  obtaining  special  privileges 
from  the  prison  officers,  the  hostility  of  the  Confederate 
authorities  was  unrelenting.  Our  attorney,  Mr.  Black- 
mer,  after  visiting  Richmond  on  our  behalf,  returned 
and  assured  us  that  he  saw  no  hope  of  our  release  be 
fore  the  end  of  the  war,  unless  we  could  effect  our  escape. 
Robert  Ould,  who  usually  denied  that  he  regarded  us 
with  special  hostility,  on  one  occasion,  in  his  cups,  re 
marked  to  the  United  States  Commissioner  : 

"  TJie  Tribune  did  more  than  any  other  agency  to 
bring  on  the  war.  It  is  useless  for  you  to  ask  the  ex 
change  of  its  correspondents.  They  are  just  the  men  we 
want,  and  just  the  men  we  are  going  to  hold." 

Our  Government,  through  blundering  rather  than 
design,  released  a  large  number  of  Rebel  journalists 
without  requiring  our  exchange.  Finally,  while  among 
the  horrors  of  Salisbury,  we  learned  that  Edward  A. 
Pollard,  a  malignant  Rebel,  and  an  editor  of  TJie  Rich 
mond  Examiner,  most  virulent  of  all  the  southern  pa» 
pers,  was  paroled  to  the  city  of  Brooklyn,  after  confine  • 
rnent  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  North.  This  news  cut  us 


422  A  CRUEL  INJUSTICE.  [1864 

like  a  knife.  We,  after  nearly  two  years  of  captivity,  in 
that  foul,  vermin- infested  prison,  among  all  its  atrocities — 
he,  at  large,  among  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  one  of 
the  pleasantest  cities  in  the  world  !  The  thought*  was  so 
"bitter,  that,  for  weeks  after  hearing  the  intelligence,  we 
did  not  speak  of  it  to  each  other.  Mr.  Welles,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  was  the  person  who  set  Pollard  at  liberty. 
I  record  the  fact,  not  that  any  special  importance  at 
taches  to  our  individual  experience,  but  because  hun 
dreds  of  Union  prisoners  were  subjected  to  kindred 
injustice. 

At  the  Salisbury  penitentiary  was  a  respectable  woman 
from  North  Carolina,  who  was  confined  for  two  months, 
in  the  same  quarters  with  the  male  inmates.  Her  crime 
was,  giving  a  meal  to  a  Rebel  deserter  !  In  Richmond, 
a  Virginian  of  seventy  was  shut  up  with  us  for  a  long 
time,  on  the  charge  of  feeding  his  own  son,  who  had 
deserted  from  the  army ! 

In  September,  a  number  of  Rebel  convicts,  armed 
with  clubs  and  knives,  forcibly  took  from  John  Lovell  a 
Union  flag,  which  he  had  thus  far  concealed.  After  the 
prisoners  of  war  arrived  they  vented  their  indignation 
upon  the  convicts,  wherever  they  could  catch  them.  For 
several  days,  Rebels  venturing  into  the  yard  were  cer 
tain  to  return  to  their  quarters  with  bruised  faces  and 
blackened  eyes. 

During  the  peace  mania,  which  seemed  to  possess  the 
North,  at  the  time  of  McClellan'  s  nomination,  the  Rebels 
were  very  hopeful.  Lieutenant  Stockton,  the  post- Ad 
jutant,  one  day  observed : 

"  You  will  go  home  very  soon  ;  we  shall  have  peace 
within  a  month." 

"  On  what  do  you  base  your  opinion  ? "  I  asked. 

"The  tone  of  your  newspapers  and  politicians.    Me- 


1864.]  REBEL  EXPECTATIONS  OF  PEACE.  423 

Clellan  is  certain  to  "be  elected  President,  and  peace  will 
immediately  follow." 

"You  southerners  are  the  most  credulous  people  in 
the  whole  world.  You  have  "been  so  long  strangers  to 
freedom  of  speech  and  the  press,  that  you  cannot  com 
prehend  it  at  all.  There  are  half  a  dozen  public  men  and 
as  many  newspapers  in  the  North,  who  really  "belong  to 
your  side,  and  express  their  Rebel  sympathies  with  little 
or  no  disguise.  Can  you  not  see  that  they  never  receive 
any  accessions  ?  Point  out  a  single  important  convert 
made  by  them  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Before 
Sumter,  these  same  men  told  you  that,  if  we  attempt 
ed  coercion,  it  would  produce  war  in  the  North  ;  and 
you  believed  them.  Again  and  again  they  have  told 
you,  as  now,  that  the  loyal  States  would  soon  give  up 
the  conflict,  and  you  still  believe  them.  Wait  until  the 
people  vote,  in  November,  and  then  tell  me  what  you 
think." 

In  due  time  came  news  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  re-election. 
The  prisoners  received  it  with  intense  satisfaction.  I  con 
veyed  it  to  the  Union  officers,  from  whom  we  were  separa 
ted  by  bayonets — tossing  to  them  a  biscuit  containing  a 
concealed  note.  A  few  minutes  after,  their  cheering  and 
shouting  excited  the  surprise  and  indignation  of  the 
prison  authorities.  The  next  morning  I  asked  Stockton 
how  he  now  regarded  the  peace  prospect.  Shaking  his 
head,  he  sadly  replied  : 

"  It  is  too  deep  for  me  ;  I  cannot  see  the  end." 

A  private  belonging  to  the  Fifty-ninth  Massachusetts 
Infantry,  had  left  Boston,  a  new  recruit,  just  six  weeks 
before  we  met  him.  In  the  interval  he  participated  in 
two  great  battles  and  five  skirmishes,  was  wounded  in 
the  leg,  captured,  escaped  from  his  guards,  while  en 
route  for  Georgia,  traveled  three  days  on  foot,  was  then 


424  ,THE  PRISON  LIKE  THE  TOMB.  [1864. 

re-captured  and  "brought  to  Salisbury.     His  six  weeks' 
experience  had  been  fruitful  and  varied. 

That  hope  deferred  which  maketh  the  heart  sick, 
"began  to  tell  seriously  upon  our  mental  health.  We 
grew  morbid  and  bitter,  and  were  often  upon  the  verge 
of  quarreling  among  ourselves.  I  remember  even  feel 
ing  a  pang  of  jealousy  and  indignation  at  an  account  of 
some  enjoyment  and  hilarity  among  my  friends  at  home. 

Our  prison  was  like  the  tomb.  No  voice  from  the 
North  entered  its  gloomy  portal.  Knowing  that  we  had 
been  unjustly  neglected  by  our  own  Government,  won 
dering  if  we  were  indeed  forsaken  by  'God  and  man,  we 
seemed  to  lose  all  human  interest,  and  to  care  little 
whether  we  lived  or  died.  But  I  suppose  lurking, 
unconscious  hope,  still  buoyed  us  up.  Could  we  have 
known  positively  that  we  must  endure  eight  months 
more  of  that  imprisonment,  I  think  we  should  have 
received  with  joy  and  gratitude  our  sentence  to  be  taken 
out  and  shot. 

Frequently  prisoners  asked  us,  sometimes  with  tears 
in  their  eyes : 

"  What  shall  we  do  ?  We  grow  weaker  day  by  day. 
Staying  here  we  shall  be  certain  to  follow  our  comrades 
to  the  hospital  and  the  dead-house.  The  Eebels  assure 
us  that  if  we  will  enlist,  we  shall  have  abundant  food 
and  clothing  ;  and  we  may  find  a  chance  of  escaping  to 
our  own  lines/' 

I  always  answered  that  they  owed  no  obligation  to 
God  or  man  to  remain  and  starve  to  death.  Of  the  two 
thousand  who  did  enlist,  nearly  all  designed  to  desert  at 
the  first  opportunity.  Their  remaining  comrades  had  no 
toleration  for  them.  If  one  who  had  joined  the  Rebels 
came  back  into  the  yard  for  a  moment,  his  life  was  in  im 
minent  peril.  Two  or  three  times  such  persons  were 


1864.]  SOMETHING  ABOUT  TUNNELING.  425 

shockingly  beaten,  and  only  saved  from  death  by  the  in 
terference  of  the  Rebel  guards.  This  ferocity  was  but 
the  expression  of  the  deep,  unselfish  patriotism  of  our  pri 
vate  soldiers.  These  men,  who  carried  muskets  and  re 
ceived  but  a  mere  pittance,  were  so  earnest  that  they 
were  almost  ready  to  kill  their  comrades  for  joining  the 
enemy  even  to  escape  a  slow,  torturing  death. 

We  grew  very  familiar  with  the  occult  science  of  tun 
neling.  Its  modus  operandi  is  this  :  the  workman,  hav 
ing  sunk  a  hole  in  the  ground  three,  six,  or  eight  feet,  as 
the  case  may  require,  strikes  off  horizontally,  lying  flat 
on  his  face,  and  'digging  with  whatever  tool  he  can 
find — usually  a  case-knife.  The  excavation  is  made  just 
large  enough  for  one  man  to  creep  through  it.  The  great 
difficulty  is,  to  conceal  the  dirt.  In  Salisbury,  however, 
this  obstacle  did  not  exist,  for  many  of  the  prisoners 
lived  in  holes  in  the  ground,  which  they  were  constantly 
changing  or  enlarging.  Hence  the  yard  abounded  in  hil 
locks  of  fresh  earth,  upon  which  that  taken  from  the  tun 
nels  could  be  spread  nightly  without  exciting  notice. 

After  the  great  influx  of  prisoners  of  war  in  October, 
a  large  tunneling  business  was  done.  I  knew  of  fifteen 
in  course  of  construction  at  one  time,  and  doubtless  there 
were  many  more.  The  Commandant  adopted  an  inge 
nious  and  effectual  method  of  rendering  them  abortive. 

In  digging  laterally  in  the  ground,  at  the  distance  of 
thirty  or  forty  feet  the  air  becomes  so  foul  that  lights  will 
not  burn,  and  men  breathe  with  difficulty.  In  the  great 
tunnel  sixty-five  feet  long,  by  which  Colonel  Streight  and 
many  other  officers  escaped  from  Libby  prison,  this  em 
barrassment  was  obviated  by  a  bit  of  Yankee  ingenuity. 
The  officers,  with  tacks,  blankets,  and  boards,  constructed 
a  pair  of  huge  bellows,  like  those  used  by  blacksmiths. 
Then,  while  one  of  them  worked  with  his  case-knife, 


426         THE  TUNNELERS  INGENIOUSLY  BAFFLED.         [ise*. 

progressing  four  or  fiye  feet  in  twelve  hours,  and  a  second 
filled  his  haversack  with  dirt  and  removed  it  (of  course 
"backing  out,  and  crawling  in  on  his  return,  as  the  tunnel 
was  a  single  track,  and  had  no  turn-table),  a  third  sat  at 
the  mouth  pumping  vigorously,  and  thus  supplied  the 
workers  with  fresh  air. 

At  Salisbury  this  was  impracticable.  I  suppose  a 
paper  of  tacks  could  not  have  been  purchased  there  for 
a  thousand  dollars.  There  were  none  to  be  had.  Of 
course  we  could  not  pierce  holes  up  to  the  surface  of  the 
ground  for  ventilation,  as  that  would  expose  every  thing. 

Originally  there  was  but  one  line  of  guards — posted 
some  twenty -five  feet  apart,  upon  the  fence  which  sur 
rounded  the  garrison,  and  constantly  walking  to  and  fro, 
meeting  each  other  and  turning  back  at  the  limits  of  each 
post.  Under  this  arrangement  it  was  necessary  to  tunnel 
about  forty  feet  to  go  under  the  fence,  and  come  up  far 
enough  beyond  it  to  emerge  from  the  earth  on  a  dark 
night  without  being  seen  or  heard  by  the  sentinels. 

When  the  Commandant  learned  (through  prisoners 
actually  suffering  for  food,  and  ready  to  do  almost  any 
thing  for  bread)  that  tunneling  was  going  on,  he  tried  to 
ascertain  where  the  excavations  were  located ;  but  in 
vain,  because  none  of  the  shaky  Unionists  had  been  in 
formed.  Therefore  he  established  a  second  line  of  guards, 
one  hundred  feet  outside  of  those  on  the  fence,  who  also 
paced  back  and  forth  in  the  same  manner  until  they  met, 
forming  a  second  line  impervious  to  Yankees.  This  ne 
cessitated  tunneling  at  least  one  hundred  and  forty  feet, 
which,  without  ventilation,  was  just  as  much  out  of  the 
question  as  to  tunnel  a  hundred  and  forty  miles. 


1864.]     FIFTEEN  MONTHS  OF  FRUITLESS  ENDEAVOR.      427 


IV. 

THE   ESCAPE. 


CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

*  A  good  wit  will  make  use  of  any  thing:  I  will  turn  diseases  to  commodity." 

KING  HENRY  IV. 

WE  were  constantly  trying  to  escape.  During  the  last 
fifteen  months  of  our  imprisonment,  I  think  there  was 
no  day  when  we  had  not  some  plan  which  we  hoped  soon 
to  put  in  execution.  We  were  always  talking  and  the 
orizing  about  the  subject. 

Indeed,  we  theorized  too  much.  We  magnified  obsta 
cles.  We  gave  our  keepers  credit  for  greater  shrewdness 
and  closer  observation  than  they  were  capable  of.  We 
would  not  start  until  all  things  combined  to  promise  suc 
cess.  Therefore,  as  the  slow  months  wore  away,  again 
and  again  we  saw  men  of  less  capacity,  but  greater 
daring,  escape  by  modes  which  had  appeared  to  us 
utterly  chimerical  and  impracticable. 

Fortune,  too,  persistently  baffled  us.  At  the  vital  mo 
ment  when  freedom  seemed  just  within  our  grasp,  some 
unforeseen  obstacle  always  intervened  to  foil  our  plans. 
Still,  assuming  a  confidence  we  did  not  feel,  we  daily 
promised  each  other  to  persist  until  we  gained  our  lib 
erty  or  lost  our  lives.  After  the  malignity  which  the 
Richmond  authorities  had  manifested  toward  us,  escape 
seemed  a  thousand-fold  preferable  to  release  by  ex 
change. 

I  should  hardly  dare  to  estimate  the  combined  length 
of  tunnels-  in  which  we  were  concerned;  they  were 


428  A  FEARFUL  JOURNEY  IN  PROSPECT.  [1864. 

always  discovered,  usually  on  the  eve  of  completion. 
My  associate  was  wont  to  declare  that  we  should  never 
escape  in  that  way,  unless  we  constructed  an  underground 
road  to  Knoxville — two  hundred  miles  as  the  bird  flies ! 

Even  if  we  passed  the  prison  walls,  the  chance  of 
reaching  our  lines  seemed  almost  hopeless.  We  were  in 
the  heart  of  the  Confederacy,  During  the  ten  months 
we  spent  in  Salisbury,  at  least  seventy  persons  escaped ; 
but  nearly  all  were  brought  back,  though  a  few  were 
shot  in  the  mountains.  We  knew  of  only  five  who 
had  reached  the  North. 

"Junius,"  certain  to  see  the  gloomy  side  ^of  every 
picture,  frequently  said:  "To  walk  the  same  distance 
in  Ohio  or  Massachusetts,  where  we  could  travel  by 
daylight  upon  public  thoroughfares,  stop  at  each  vil 
lage  for  rest  and  refreshments,  and  sleep  in  warm  beds 
every  night,  we  should  consider  a  severe  hardship. 
Think  of  this  terrible  tramp  of  two  hundred  miles,  by 
night,  in  mid-winter,  over  two  ranges  of  mountains, 
creeping  stealthily  through  the  enemy' s  country,  weak, 
hungry,  shelterless !  Can  any  of  us  live  to  accomplish 
it?" 

When  at  last  we  did  essay  it,  the  journey  proved 
nearly  twice  as  long  and  infinitely  severer  than  even  he 
had  conceived. 

Among  the  officers  of  the  prison,  were  three  stanch 
Union  men — a  lieutenant,  a  surgeon,  and  Lieutenant 
John  E.  Welborn.  They  were  our  devoted  friends. 
Their  homes,  families,  and  interests,  were  in  the  South. 
Attempting  to  escape,  they  were  likely  to  be  captured 
and  imprisoned.  Remaining,  they  must  enter  the  army 
in  some  capacity,  and  they  preferred  wearing  swords 
to  carrying  muskets.  Hundreds  of  Loyalists  were  in 
the  same  predicament,  and  adopted  the  same  course. 


1864]          A  FRIENDLY  CONFEDERATE  OFFICER.  429 

These  gentlemen  were  of  service  to  us  in  a  thousand 
ways.  They  supplied  us  with  money,  books,  and  pro 
visions  ;  Ibore  messages  between  us  and  other  friends  in 
the  village ;  and  kept  us  constantly  advised  of  military 
and  political  events  known  to  the  officials,  but  concealed 
from  the  public. 

Lieutenant  Welborn  came  to  the  garrison  only  about 
a  month  before  our  departure.  He  belonged  to  a 
secret  organization  known  as  the  Sons  of  America,  insti 
tuted  expressly  to  assist  Union  men,  whether  prisoners 
or  refugees,  in  escaping  to  the  North.  Its  members  were 
bound,  by  solemn  oath,  to  aid  brothers  in  distress.  They 
recognized  each  other  by  the  signs,  grips,  and  passwords, 
common  to  all  secret  societies. 

We  soon  discovered  that  Welborn  was  not  only  of 
the  Order,  but  a  very  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  mem 
ber.  He  was  singularly  daring.  At  our  first  stolen 
interview  he  said :  "  You  shall  be  out  very  soon,  at  all 
hazards."  Had  he  been  detected  in  aiding  us,  it  would 
have  cost  him  his  life ;  but  he  was  quite  ready  to  peril  it. 

Beyond  the  inner  line  of  sentinels,  which  was  much 
the  more  difficult  one  to  pass,  stood  a  Rebel  hospital, 
where  all  medicines  for  the  garrison  were  stored.  When 
we  were  placed  in  charge  of  the  Union  hospitals,  Mr. 
Davis  was  furnished  with  a  pass  to  go  out  for  medical 
supplies.  It  was  the  inflexible  rule  of  the  prison  that 
all  persons  having  such  passes  should  give  paroles  not 
to  escape.  Davis  would  have  assumed  no  such  obliga 
tion.  But  in  the  confusion  incident  to  the  great  influx 
of  prisoners  of  war,  and  because  it  was  the  business  of 
several  Rebel  officers — the  Commandant,  the  Medical 
Director,  and  the  Post- Adjutant — instead  of  the  duty  of 
one  man  to  see  it  done,  he  was  never  asked  for  the  parole. 

A  few  days  later,  the  prison  authorities  gave  similar 


430  EFFECTS  OF  HUNGER  AITO  COLD.  [1864. 

passes  to  "  Junius"  and  to  Captain  Thomas  E.  Wolfe, 
of  Connecticut,  master  of  a  merchant- vessel,  who  had 
"been  a  prisoner  nearly  as  long  as  we.  We  attempted  to 
convince  them,  through  several  deluded  Rebel  attaches, 
that  it  was  essential  to  the  proper  conduct  of  the  medical 
department  that  I  too  should  be  supplied  with  a  pass. 
Doubtless  we  should  have  succeeded  in  time,  had  not  an 
incident  occurred  to  hasten  our  movements. 

On  Sunday,  December  18th,  we  learned  that  General 
Bradley  T.  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  had  arrived,  and 
on  the  following  day  would  supersede  Major  Gee  as 
Commandant  of  the  prison.  Johnson  was  a  soldier  who 
knew  how  business  should  be  done,  and  would  doubtless 
put  a  stop  to  this  loose  arrangement  about  passes.  Not 
a  moment  was  to  be  lost,  and  we  determined  to  escape 
that  very  night. 

I  engaged  several  prisoners,  without  informing  them 
for  what  purpose,  in  copying  from  my  hospital  books 
the  names  of  the  dead.  I  felt  that,  to  relieve  friends  at 
home,  we  ought  to  make  an  effort  to  carry  through  this 
information,  as  long  as  there  was  the  slightest  possibility 
of  success. 

My  own  books  only  contained  the  names  of  prisoners 
who  died  in  the  hospitals.  "Out-door  patients" — those 
deceased  in  their  own  quarters,  or  in  no  quarters  what 
ever,  were  recorded  in  a  separate  book,  by  the  Rebel  clerk 
in  the  outside  hospital.  I  dared  not  send  to  him  for 
their  names  on  Sunday,  lest  it  should  excite  his  suspicion. 
But  the  list  from  my  own  records  was  appalling.  It  com 
prised  over  fourteen  hundred  prisoners  deceased  within 
sixty  days,  and  showed  that  they  were  now  dying  at 
the  rate  of  thirteen  per  cent,  a  month  on  the  entire  num 
ber — a  rate  of  mortality  which  would  depopulate  any 
city  in  the  world  in  forty-eight  hours,  and  send  the 


1864.]  ANOTHER  PLAN  IN  RESERVE.  431 

people  flying  in  all  directions,  as  from  a  pestilence  !  Yet 
when  those  prisoners  came  there,  they  were  young  and 
vigorous,  like  our  soldiers  generally  in  the  field.  There 
was  not  a  sick  or  wounded  man  among  them.  It  was  a 
fearful  revelation  of  the  work  which  cold  and  starva 
tion  had  done. 

When  I  put  on  extra  under-clothing  for  the  possible 
journey,  it  was  without  conscious  expectation — almost 
without  any  hope  whatever — of  success.  I  had  assumed 
the  same  garments  for  the  same  purpose,  at  the  very  least, 
thirty  times  before,  within  fifteen  months,  only  to  be  dis 
appointed  ;  and  that  was  enough  to  dampen  the  most  san 
guine  temperament. 

We  believed  that  our  attempt,  if  detected,  would  be 
made  the  excuse  for  treating  us  with  peculiar  rigor. 
But,  in  the  event  of  discovery,  we  were  likely  to  be  sent 
back  to  our  own  quarters  for  the  night,  and  not  ironed  or 
confined  in  a  cell  until  the  next  morning. 

Lieutenant  Welborn  was  on  duty  that  day.  We 
made  him  privy  to  our  plan.  He  agreed,  if  it  proved 
unsuccessful,  to  smuggle  injrnuskets  for  us  ;  and  we  pro 
posed  to  wrap  ourselves  in  gray  blankets,  slouch  our 
hats  down  over  our  eyes,  and  pass  out  at  midnight,  as 
Rebel  soldiers,  when  he  relieved  the  guard.  Once  in  the 
camp,  he  could  conduct  us  outside. 

On  that  Sunday  evening,  half  an  hour  before  dark 
(the  latest  moment  at  which  the  guards  could  be  passed, 
even  by  authorized  persons,  without  the  countersign), 
Messrs.  Browne,  Wolfe,  and  Davis,  went  outside,  as  if  to 
order  their  medical  supplies  for  the  sick  prisoners.  As 
they  passed  in  and  out  a  dozen  times  a  day,  and  their 
faces  were  quite  familiar  to  the  sentinels,  they  were  not 
compelled  to  show  their  passes,  and  "  Junius"  left  his 
behind  with  me. 


432  STOPPED  BY  THE  SENTINEL.  [ise*. 

A  few  minutes  later,  taking  a  long  box  filled  with 
bottles  in  which  the  medicines  were  usually  "brought,  and 
giving  it  to  a  little  lad  who  assisted  me  in  my  hospital 
duties,  I  started  to  follow  them. 

As  if  in  great  haste,  we  walked  rapidly  toward  the 
fence,  'while,  leaning  against  trees  or  standing  in  the  hos 
pital  doors,  half  a  dozen  friends  looked  on  to  see  how 
the  plan  worked.  When  we  reached  the  gate,  I  took  the 
box  from  the  boy,,  and  said  to  him,  of  course  for  the  ben 
efit  of  the  sentinel : 

"I  am  going  outside  to  get  these  bottles  filled.  I 
shall  be  back  in  about  fifteen  minutes,  and  want  you  to 
remain  right  here,  to  take  them  and  distribute  them 
among  the  hospitals.  Do  not  go  away,  now." 

The  lad,  understanding  the  matter  perfectly,  replied, 
"  Yes,  sir ;"  and  I  attempted  to  pass  the  sentinel  by  mere 
assurance. 

I  had  learned  long  before  how  far  a  man  may  go,  even 
in  captivity,  by  sheer,  native  impudence — by  moving 
straight  on,  without  hesitation,  with  a  confident  look, 
just  as  if  he  had  a  right  to  go,  and  no  one  had  any  right 
to  question  him.  Several  times,  as  already  related,  I 
saw  captives,  who  had  procured  citizens'  clothes,  thus 
walk  past  the  guards  in  broad  daylight,  out  of  Eebel 
prisons. 

I  think  I  could  have  done  it  on  this  occasion,  but  for 
the  fact  that  it  had  been  tried  successfully  twice  or  thrice, 
and  the  guards  severely  punished.  The  sentinel  stopped 
me  with  his  musket,  demanding : 

"Have  you  a  pass,  sir  ?" 

"  Certainly,  I  have  a  pass,"  I  replied,  with  all  the  in 
dignation  I  could  assume.  "Have  you  not  seen  it  often 
enough  to  know  by  this  time  ?" 

Apparently  a  little  confounded,  he  replied,  modestly  : 


1864.]  "EXCUSE  ME  FOR  DETAINING  You."  433 

"  Probably  I  have  ;  but  they  are  very  strict  with  us, 
and  I  was  not  quite  sure." 

I  gave  to  him  this  genuine  pass  belonging  to  my 
associate : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  CONFEDERATE  STATES  MILITARY  PRISON,  ) 
SALISBURY,  N.  C.,  December  5,  1864.      ) 

Junius  H.  Browne,  Citizen,  has  permission  to  pass  the  inner  gate  of 
the  Prison,  to  assist  in  carrying  medicines  to  the  Military  Prison  Hos 
pitals,  until  further  orders.  J.  A.  FUQUA, 

Captain  and  Assistant-Commandant  of  Post. 

We  had  speculated  for  a  long  time  about  my  using  a 
spurious  pass,  and  my  two  comrades  prepared  several 
with  a  skill  and  exactness  which  proved  that,  if  their 
talents  had  been  turned  in  that  direction,  they  might 
have  made  first-class  forgers.  But  we  finally  decided 
that  the  veritable  pass  was  better,  because,  if  the  guard 
had  any  doubt  about  it,  I  could  tell  him  to  send  it  into 
head- quarters  for  examination.  The  answer  returned 
would  of  course  be  that  it  was  genuine. 

But  it  was  not  submitted  to  any  such  inspection.  The 
sentinel  spelled  it  out  slowly,  then  folded  and  returned  it 
to  me,  saying : 

"That  pass  is  all  right.  I  know  Captain  Fuqua's 
handwriting.  Go  on,  sir  ;  excuse  me  for  detaining  you." 

I  thought  him  excusable  under  the  circumstances,  and 
walked  out.  My  great  fear  was  that,  during  the  half 
hour  which  must  elapse  before  I  could  go  outside  the 
garrison,  I  might  encounter  some  Rebel  officer  or  attache 
who  knew  me. 

Before  I  had  taken  ten  steps,  I  saw,  sauntering  to  and 
fro  on  the  piazza  of  the  head-quarters  building,  a  deserter 
from  our  service,  named  Davidson,  who  recognized  and 
bowed  to  me.  I  thought  he  would  not  betray  me,  but 
was  still  fearful  of  it.  I  went  on,  and  a  few  yards  far- 

28 


434          ENCOUNTERING  REBEL  ACQUAINTANCES.          [1864, 

tlier,  coming  toward  me  in  that  narrow  lane,  where  it 
was  impossible  to  avoid  him,  I  saw  the  one  Rebel  officer 
who  knew  me  better  than  any  other,  and  who  frequently 
came  into  my  quarters — Lieutenant  Stockton,  the  Post- 
Adjutant.  Observing  him  in  the  distance,  I  thought  I 
recognized  in  him  that  old  ill- fortune  which  had  so  long 
and  steadfastly  baffled  us.  But  I  had  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  my  associates  were  on  the  look-out  from  a 
window  and,  if  they  saw  me  involved  in  any  trouble, 
would  at  once  pass  the  outer  gate,  if  possible,  and  make 
good  their  own  escape. 

When  we  met,  I  bade  Stockton  good-evening,  and 
talked  for  a  few  minutes  upon  the  weather,  or  some  other 
subject  in  which  I  did  not  feel  any  very  profound  inter 
est.  Then  he  passed  into  head-quarters,  and  I  went  on. 
Yet  a  few  yards  farther,  I  encountered  a  third  Rebel, 
named  Smith,  who  knew  me  well,  and  whose  quarters, 
inside  the  garrison,  were  within  fifty  feet  of  my  own. 
There  were  not  half  a  dozen  Confederates  about  the 
prison  who  were  familiar  with  me  ;  but  it  seemed  as  if 
at  this  moment  they  were  coming  together  in  a  grand 
convention. 

Not  daring  to  enter  the  Rebel  hospital,  where  I  was 
certain  to  be  recognized,  I  laid  down  my  box  of  medi 
cines  behind  a  door,  and  sought  shelter  in  a  little  out 
building.  While  I  remained  there,  waiting  for  the  blessed 
darkness,  I  constantly  expected  to  see  a  sergeant,  with  a 
file  of  soldiers,  come  to  take  me  back  into  the  yard  ;  but 
none  came.  It  was  rare  good  fortune.  Stockton,  Smith, 
and  Davidson,  all  knew,  if  they  had  their  wits  about 
them,  that  I  had  no  more  right  there  than  in  the  village 
itself.  I  suppose  their  thoughtlessness  must  have  been 
caused  by  the  peculiarly  honest  and  business-like  look 
of  that  medicine- box ! 


1864.]  "OUT   OF    THE   JAWS    OF    DEATH."  435 


CHAPTER    XL. 


Wheresoe'er  you  are 


That  bide  the  pelting  of  this  pitiless  storm, 
How  shall  your  houseless  heads  and  unfed  sides, 
Your  looped  and  windowed  ruggedness,  defend  you? 

KINO  LEAR. 

AT  dark,  my  three  friends  joined  me.  ^\7e  went 
through  the  outer  gate,  in  full  view  of  a  sentinel,  who 
supposed  we  were  Rebel  surgeons  or  nurses.  And  then, 
on  that  rainy  Sunday  night,  for  the  first  time  in  twenty 
months,  we  found  ourselves  walking  freely  in  a  public 
street,  without  a  Rebel  bayonet  before  or  behind  us  ! 

Reaching  an  open  field,  a  mile  from  the  prison,  we 
crouched  down  upon  the  soaked  ground,  in  a  bed  of 
reeds,  while  Davis  went  to  find  a  friend  who  had  long 
before  promised  us  shelter.  While  lying  there,  we 
heard  a  man  walking  through  the  darkness  directly  tow 
ard  us.  We  hugged  the  earth  and  held  our  breaths,  list 
ening  to  the  beating  of  our  own  hearts.  He  passed  so 
near,  that  his  coat  brushed  my  cheek.  We  were  beside  a 
path  which  led  across  the  field  from  one  house  to  another. 
Davis  soon  returned,  and  called  us  with  a  low  "Hist !" 
We  crept  to  the  fence  where  he  waited. 

"  It  is  all  right,"  he  said  ;  "  follow  me." 

He  led  us  through  bushes  and  lanes  until  we  found 
our  friend,  leaning  against  a  tree  in  the  rain,  waiting  for 
us. 

"  Thank  God  !"  he  exclaimed,  "  you  are  out  at  last.  I 
wish  I  could  extend  to  you  the  hospitalities  of  my  house  ; 
but  it  is  full  of  visitors,  and  they  are  all  Rebels.  How- 


436  HIDING  IN  SIGHT  OF  THE  PRISON.  [1864 

ever,  I  will  take  you  to  a  tolerably  safe  place.  I  have  to 
leave  town  by  a  night  train  in  half  an  hour,  but  I  will 

tell where  you  are,  and  he  will  come  and  see  you 

to-morrow." 

He  conducted  us  to  a  barn,  in  full  sight  of  the  prison  ; 
directed  us  how  to  hide,  wrung  our  hands,  bade  us  God 
speed,  and  returned  to  his  house  and  his  unsuspecting 
guests. 

We  climbed  up  the  ladder  into  the  hay -mow.  Davis 
and  Wolfe  burrowed  down  perpendicularly  into  the  fod 
der,  as  if  sinking  an  oil-well,  until  they  were  covered, 
heads  and  all.  "  Junius"  and  myself,  after  two  hours  of 
perspiring  labor,  tunneled  into  a  safe  position  under  the 
eaves,  where  we  lay,  stretched  at  full  length,  head  to 
head,  luxuriating  in  the  fresh  air,  which  came  in  through 
the  cracks. 

Wonderfully  pure  and  delicious  it  seemed,  contrasted 
with  the  foul,  vitiated  atmosphere  we  had  just  left !  How 
sweet  smelled  the  hay  and  the  husks  !  How  infinite  the 
"  measureless  content"  which  filled  us  at  the  remem 
brance  that  at  last  we  were  free  !  Hearing  the  prison 
sentinels,  as  they  shouted  c  c  Ten  o' — clock  ;  a — IPs  well !" 
we  sank,  like  Abou  Ben  Adhem,  into  a  deep  dream  of 
peace. 

Our  object  in  remaining  here  was  twofold.  We  de 
sired  to  meet  Welborn,  and  obtain  minute  directions 
about  the  route,  which  thus  far  he  had  found  no  oppor 
tunity  to  give  us.  Besides,  we  anticipated  a  vigilant 
search.  The  Rebel  authorities  were  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  habits  of  escaping  prisoners,  who  invariably 
acted  as  if  there  were  never  to  be  any  more  nights  after 
the  first,  and  walked  as  far  as  their  strength  would  per 
mit.  Thus  exhausted,  they  were  unable  to  resist  or  run, 
if  overtaken. 


1864.]  CERTAIN  TO  BE  BROUGHT  BACK.  437 

The  Commandant  would  be  likely  to  send  out  and 
picket  all  the  probable  routes  near  the  points  we  could 
reach  by  a  hard  night's  travel.  We  thought  it  good 
policy  to  keep  inside  these  scouts.  While  they  held 
the  advance,  they  would  hardly  obtain  tidings  of  us. 
We  could  learn  from  the  negroes  where  they  guarded 
the  roads  and  fords,  and  thus  easily  evade  them.  Our 
shelter,  in  full  view  of  the  garrison,  and  within  sound  of 
its  morning  drum-beat,  was  the  one  place,  of  all  others, 
where  they  would  never  think  of  searching  for  us. 

On  the  second  morning  after  our  disappearance,  The 
Salisbury  Daily  WatcJiman  announced  the  escape,  and 
said  that  it  caused  some  chagrin,  as  we  were  the  most  im 
portant  prisoners  in  the  garrison.  But  it  added  that  we 
were  morally  certain  to  be  brought  back  within  a  week, 
as  scouts  had  been  sent  out  in  all  directions,  and  the 
country  thoroughly  alarmed.  Some  of  these  scouts  went 
ninety  miles  from  Salisbury,  but  were  naturally  unable 
to  leajn  any  thing  concerning  us. 

II.  Monday,  December  19. 

Remained  hidden  in  the  barn.  There  was  a  house 
only  a  few  yards  away,  and  we  could  hear  the  conversa 
tion  of  the  inmates  whenever  the  doors  were  open. 
White  and  negro  children  came  up  into  the  hay-loft, 
sometimes  running  and  jumping  directly  over  the  heads 
of  Wolfe  and  Davis. 

At  dark,  another  friend,  a  commissioned  officer  in  the 
Rebel  army,  came  out  to  us  with  a  canteen  of  water, 
which,  quite  without  food,  we  had  wanted  sadly  during 
the  day.  He  was  unable  to  bring  us  provisions.  His 
wife  was  a  Southern  lady.  Reluctant  to  cause  her 
anxiety  for  his  liberty  and  property,  imperiled  by  aiding 
us,  or  from  some  other  reason,  he  did  not  take  her  into 


438  COMMENCING  THE  LONG  JOURNEY.  [ise*. 

the  secret.  Like  most  frugal  wives,  where  young  and 
adult  negroes  abound,  she  kept  her  provisions  under 
lock  and  key,  and  he  found  it  impossible  to  procure 
even  a  loaf  of  bread  without  her  knowledge. 

With  his  parting  benediction,  we  returned  to  the  field 
where  we  had  waited  the  night  before,  and  found  Lieu 
tenant  Welborn,  punctual  to  appointment,  with  another 
escaped  prisoner,  Charles  Thurston,  of  the  Sixth  New 
Hampshire  Infantry. 

Thurston  had  two  valuable  possessions — great  address, 
and  the  uniform  of  a  Confederate  private.  At  ten  o'clock, 
on  Sunday  night,  learning  of  our  escape,  and  thinking  us 
a  good  party  to  accompany,  he  walked  out  of  the  prison 
yard  behind  two  Rebel  detectives,  the  sentinel  taking 
him  for  a  third  officer.  Slouching  his  liat  over  his  face, 
with  matchless  effrontery  he  sat  down  on  a  log,  among 
the  Rebel  guards.  In  a  few  minutes  he  caught  the  eye 
of  Welborn,  who  soon  led  him  by  all  the  sentinels, 
giving  the  countersign  as  he  passed,  until  he  was  outside 
the  garrison,  and  then  hid  him  in  a  barn,  •  half  a  mile 
from  our  place  of  shelter.  The  negroes  fed  him  during 
the  day  ;  and  now  here  he  was,  jovial,  sanguine,  daring, 
ready  to  start  for  the  North  Pole  itself. 

Welborn  gave  us  written  directions  how  to  reach 
friends  in  a  stanch  Union  settlement  fifty  miles  away. 
It  was  hard  to  part  from  the  noble  fellow.  At  that  very 
moment  he  was.  under  arrest,  and  awaiting  trial  by  court 
martial,  on  the  charge  of  aiding  prisoners  to  escape.  In 
due  time  he  was  acquitted.  Three  months  later  he 
reached  our  lines  at  Knoxville,  with  thirty  Union  prison 
ers,  whom  he  had  conducted  from  Salisbury. 

We  said  adieu,  and  went  out  into  the  starry  silence. 
Plowing  through  the  mud  for  three  miles,  we  struck  the 
Western  Railroad,  and  followed  it.  Beside  it  were  seve- 


1864.]  Too  WEAK  FOR  TRAVELING.  439 

ral  camps  with  great  fires  blazing  in  front  of  them.  Un 
certain  whether  they  were  occupied  by  guards  or  wood- 
choppers,  we  kept  on  the  safe  side,  and  flanked  them  by 
wide  detours  through  the  almost  impenetrable  forest. 

We  were  very  weak.  In  the  garrison  we  had  been 
burying  from  twelve  to  twenty  men  per  day,  from  pneu 
monia.  I  had  suffered  from  it  for  more  than  a  month,  and 
my  cough  was  peculiarly  hollow  and  stubborn.  My 
lungs  were  still  sore  and  sensitive,  and  walking  greatly 
exhausted  me.  It  was  difficult,  even  when  supported  by 
the  arm  of  one  of  my  friends,  to  keep  up  with  the  party. 
At  midnight  I  was  compelled  to  lie,  half  unconscious, 
upon  the  ground,  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  before  I 
could  go  on. 

We  accomplished  twelve  miles  during  the  night.  At 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  went  into  the  pine- woods, 
and  rested  upon  the  frozen  ground. 

III.  Tuesday,  December  20. 

We  supposed  our  hiding-place  very  secluded ;  but 
daylight  revealed  that  it  was  in  the  midst  of  a  settle 
ment.  Barking  dogs,  crowing  fowls,  and  shouting 
negroes,  could  be  heard  from  the  farms  all  about  us. 
It  was  very  cold,  and  we  dared  not  build  a  fire.  None 
of  us  were  adequately  clothed,  and  "  Junius"  had  not 
even  an  overcoat.  It  was  impossible  to  bring  extra  gar 
ments,  which  would  have  excited  the  attention  of  the  sen 
tinel  at  the  gate. 

We  could  sleep  for  a  few  minutes  on  the  pine-leaves  ; 
but  soon  the  chilly  air,  penetrating  every  fibre,  would 
awaken  us.  There  was  a  road,  only  a  few  yards  from  our 
pine-thicket,  upon  which  we  saw  horsemen  and  farmers 
with  loads  of  wood,  but  no  negroes  unaccompanied  by 
white  men. 


440  SEVERE  MARCH  IN  THE  RAIN. 

Soon  after  dark  it  began  to  rain  ;  "but  necessity,  that  in 
exorable  policeman,  bade  us  move  on.  When  we  ap 
proached  a  large  plantation,  leaving  us  behind,  in  a  fence- 
corner,  Thurston  went  forward  to  reconnoiter.  He  found 
the  negro  quarters  occupied  by  a  middle-aged  man  and 
woman.  They  were  very  busy  that  night,  cooking  for 
and  serving  the  young  white  people,  who  had  a  pleas 
ure-party  at  the  master's  house,  within  a  stone's  throw 
of  the  slave-cabin. 

But  when  they  learned  that  there  were  hungry  Yan 
kees  in  the  neighborhood,  they  immediately  prepared  and 
brought  out  to  us  an  enormous  supper  of  fresh  pork  and 
corn-bread.  It  was  now  nine  o'clock  on  Tuesday  night, 
and  we  had  eaten  nothing  since  three  o'clock  Sunday 
afternoon,  save  about  three  ounces  of  bread  and  four 
ounces  of  meat  to  the  man.  We  had  that  to  think  of 
which  made  us  forget  the  gnawings  of  hunger,  though 
we  suffered  somewhat  from  a  feeling  of  faintness.  Now, 
in  the  barn,  with  the  rain  pattering  on  the  roof,  we  de 
voured  supper  in  an  incredibly  brief  period,  and  begged 
the  slave  to  go  back  with  his  basket  and  bring  just 
as  much  more. 

About  midnight  the  negro  found  time  to  pilot  us 
through  the  dense  darkness  and  pouring  rain,  back  to 
the  railroad,  from  which  we  had  strayed  three  miles. 
The  night  was  bitterly  cold,  and  in  half  an  hour  we  were 
as  wet  as  if  again  shipwrecked  in  the  Mississippi: 

For  five  weary  miles  we  plodded  on,  with  the  stinging 
rain  pelting  our  faces.  Then  we  stopped  at  a  plantation, 
and  found  the  negroes.  They  told  us  it  was  unsafe  to 
remain,  several  white  men  being  at  home,  and  no  good 
hiding-place  near,  but  directed  us  to  a  neighbor's.  There 
the  slaves  sent  us  to  a  roadside  barn,  which  we  reached 
just  before  daylight. 


1864.]  A  CABIN  OF  FRIENDLY  NEGROES.  441 


CHAPTER     XLI. 

I  am  not  a  Stephana,  hut  a  cramp. 

TEMPEST. 

Let  every  man  shift  for  all  the  rest,  and  let  no  man 
Take  care  for  himself;  for  all  is  but  fortune. 

IBID. 

THE  barn  contained  no  fodder  except  damp  husks. 
Burrowing  into  these,  we  wrapped  our  dripping  coats 
about  us,  covered  ourselves,  faces  and  all,  and  shivered 
through  the  day,  so  weary  that  we  drowsed  a  little,  but 
too  uncomfortable  for  any  refreshing  slumbers. 

Rising  at  dark,  with  skins  irritated  by  atoms  of 
husk  which  had  penetrated  our  clothing,  we  combed  out 
our  matted  hair  and  beards — a  very  faint  essay  toward 
making  our  toilets.  Hats,  gloves,  handkerchiefs,  and 
haversacks,  were  hopelessly  lost  in  the  fodder.  Hungry, 
cold,  rheumatic,  aching  at  every  joint,  we  seemed  to 
have  exhausted  our  slender  endurance. 

But  a  walk  of  ten  minutes  took  us  to  a  slave-cabin, 
where,  as  usual,  we  found  devoted  friends.  The  old 
negro  killed  two  chickens,  and  then  stood  outside,  to 
watch  and  warn  us  of  the  patrols,  should  he  hear  the 
clattering  hoofs  of  their  approaching  horses.  His  wife 
and  daughter  cooked  supper,  while  we  stood  before  the 
blazing  logs  of  the  wide-mouthed  fireplace,  to  dry  our 
steaming  garments. 

It  was  the  first  dwelling  I  had  entered  for  nearly 
twenty  months.  It  was  rude  almost  to  squalor ;  but 
it  looked  more  palatial  than  the  most  elegant  and  luxu 
rious  saloon.  There  was  a  soft  bed,  with  clean,  snowy 


442         SOUTHERNERS  UNACQUAINTED  WITH  TEA.        [1864. 

sheets.  How  I  envied  those  negroes,  and  longed  to 
stretch  my  limbs  upon  it  and  sleep  for  a  month  !  There 
were  chairs,  a  table,  plates,  knives,  and  forks — the  com 
monest  comforts  of  life,  which,  like  sweet  cold  water, 
clean  clothing,  and  pure  air,  we  never  appreciate  until 
once  deprived  of  them. 

We  eagerly  devoured  the  chickens  and  hot  corn- 
bread,  and  drank  steaming  cups  of  green  tea,  which  our 
ebony  hostess,  unfamiliar  with  the  beverage  that  cheers, 
but  not  inebriates,  prepared  under  my  directions.  Be 
fore  starting  I  had  taken  the  precaution  to  fill  a  pocket 
with  tea,  which  I  had  been  saving  more  than  a  year 
for  that  purpose.  In  commercial  parlance,  tea  was  tea 
in  the  Confederacy.  The  last  pound  we  purchased,  for 
daily  use,  cost  us  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  dol 
lars  in  Rebel  currency,  and  we  were  compelled  to  send 
to  Wilmington  before  we  could  obtain  it  even  at  that 
price. 

It  is  an  article  little  used  by  the  Southerners,  who 
are  inveterate  coffee-drinkers.  All  along  our  route  we 
found  the  women,  white  and  black,  ignorant  of  the  art 
of  making  tea  without  instructions.  Captain  Wolfe 
assured  us  that  his  father  once  attended  a  log-rolling  in 
South  Carolina,  where,  as  a  rare  and  costly  luxury,  the 
host  regaled  the  workers  with  tea  at  the  close  of  their 
labors.  But,  unacquainted  with  its  use,  they  were  only 
presented  with  the  boiled  leaves  to  eat !  After  this  novel 
banquet,  one  old  lady  thus  expressed  the  views  of  the 
rural  assembly:  "Well,  I  never  tasted  this  before.  It 
is  pleasant  enough  ;  but  except  for  the  name  of  it,  I  doir  t 
consider  tea  a  bit  better  than  any  other  kind  of  greens  !" 

Experience  on  the  great  Plains  and  among  the  Rocky 
Mountains  had  taught  me  the  superiority  of  tea  over  all 
stronger  stimulants  in  severe,  protracted  hardships. 


1864.]        WALKING  TWELVE  MILES  FOR  NOTHING.         443 

Now  it  proved  of  inestimable  service  to  us.  After  a 
two-hours'  halt,  refreshed  by  food  and  dry  clothing,  we 
seemed  to  have  a  new  lease  of  life.  Elastic  and  vigorous, 
we  felt  equal  to  almost  any  labor. 

"May  God  bless  you,"  said  the  old  woman,  bidding 
us  adieu,  while  earnest  sympathy  shone  from  her  own 
and  her  daughter's  eyes  and  illumined  their  dark  faces. 
To  us  they  were  "black,  and  comely  too."  The  husband 
led  us  to  the  railroad,  and  there  parted  from  us. 

At  midnight  we  were  twenty-three  miles  from  Salis 
bury,  and  three  from  Statesville.  We  wished  to  avoid 
the  latter  village;  and  leaving  the  railway,  which  ran 
due  west,  turned  farther  northward.  In  two  miles  we 
expected  to  strike  the  Wilkesboro  road,  at  Allison's 
Mill.  We  followed  the  old  negro's  directions  as  well  as 
possible,  but  soon  suspected  that  we  must  be  off  the  route. 
It  was  bitterly  cold,  and  to  avoid  suffering  we  walked 
on  and  on  with  great  rapidity.  Before  daylight,  at  a 
large  plantation,  we  wakened  a  slave,  and  learned  that, 
since  leaving  the  railway,  we  had  traveled  twelve  miles 
circuitously  and  gained  just  one  half-mile  on  the  jour 
ney !  There  were  two  Allison's  Mills,  and  our  black 
friend  had  directed  us  to  the  wrong  one. 

"Can  you  conceal  us  here  to-day?"  we  asked  in  a 
whisper  of  the  negro  who  gave  us  this  information  from 
his  bed,  in  a  little  cabin. 

"I  reckon  so.  Master  is  a  terrible  war-man,  a  Con 
federate  officer,  and  would  kill  me  if  he  were  to  find  it 
out.  But  I  kept  a  sick  Yankee  captain  here  last  sum 
mer  for  five  days,  and  then  he  went  on.  Gro  to  the  barn 
and  hide,  and  I  will  see  you  when  I  come  to  fodder  the 
horses." 

We  found  the  barn,  groped  our  way  up  into  a  hay 
loft,  under  the  eaves,  and  buried  ourselves  in  the  straw. 


444        EVERY  BLACK  FACE  A  FRIENDLY  FACE.        [1864 

V.  Thursday,  December  22. 

The  "biting  wind  whistled  and  shrieked  "between  the 
logs  of  the  barn,  and,  cover  ourselves  as  we  would,  it 
Was  too  cold  for  sleep.  The  negro — an  intelligent  young 
man — spent  several  hours  with  us,  asking  questions 
about  the  North,  brought  us  ample  supplies  of  food,  and 
a  bottle  of  apple-brandy  purloined  from  his  master's 
private  stores. 

At  dark  he  took  us  into  his  quarters,  only  separated 
by  a  narrow  lane  from  the  planter's  house,  and  we 
were  warmed  and  fed.  A  dozen  of  the  blacks — inclu 
ding  little  boys  and  girls  of  ten  and  twelve  years — vis 
ited  us  there.  Among  them  was  a  peculiarly  intelli 
gent  mulatto  woman  of  twenty-five,  comely,  and  neatly 
dressed.  The  poor  girl  interrogated  us  for  an  hour  very 
earnestly  about  the  progress  of  the  War,  its  probable 
results,  and  the  feeling  and  purposes  of  the  North 
touching  the  slaves.  Using  language  with  rare  pro 
priety,  she  impressed  me  as  one  who  would  willingly 
give  up  life  for  her  unfortunate  race.  With  culture  and 
opportunity,  she  would  have  been  an  intellectual  and 
social  power  in  any  circle.  She  was  the  wife  of  a  slave  ; 
but  her  companions  told  us  that  she  had  been  compelled 
to  become  the  mistress  of  her  master.  She  spoke  of  him 
with  intense  loathing. 

By  this  time  we  had  learned  that  every  black  face 
was  a  friendly  face.  So  far  as  fidelity  was  concerned, 
we  felt  just  as  safe  among  the  negroes  as  if  in  our  North 
ern  homes.  Male  or  female,  old  or  young,  intelligent  or 
simple,  we  were  fully  assured  they  would  never  betray 
us. 

Some  one  has  said  that  it  needs  three  generations  to 
make  a  gentleman.  Heaven  only  knows  how  many  gen 
erations  are  required  to  make  a  freeman  !  But  we  have 


1864]  TOUCHING  FIDELITY  OF  THE  SLAVES.  445 

been  accustomed  to  consider  this  perfect  trustworthi 
ness,  this  complete  loyalty  to  friends,  a  distinctively 
Saxon  trait.  The  very  rare  degree  to  which  the  negroes 
have  manifested  it,  is  an  augury  of  brightest  hope  and 
promise  for  their  future.  It  is  a  faint  indication  of  what 
they  may  one  day  become,  with  Justice,  Time,  and  Op 
portunity. 

They  were  always  ready  to  help  anybody  opposed 
to  the  Rebels.  Union  refugees,  Confederate  deserters, 
escaped  prisoners — all  received  from  them  the  same 
prompt  and  invariable  kindness.  But  let  a  Rebel 
soldier,  on  his  way  to  the  army,  or  returning  from  it, 
apply  to  them,  and  he  would  find  but  cold  kindness. 

The  moment  they  met  us,  they  would  do  whatever  we 
required  upon  impulse  and  instinct.  But  afterward, 
when  there  was  leisure  for  conversation,  they  would 
question  us  with  some  anxiety.  Few  had  ever  seen  a 
Yankee  before.  They  would  repeat  to  us  the  bugbear 
stories  of  their  masters,  about  our  whipping  them  to 
force  them  into  the  Union  army,  and  starving  their  wives 
and  children.  Professing  utterly  to  discredit  these  re 
ports,  they  still  desired  a  little  reassurance.  We  can 
never  forget  their  upturned,  eager  eyes,  and  earnest 
faces.  Happily  we  could  tell  them  that  the  Nation  was 
rising  to  the  great  principles  of  Freedom,  Education,  and 
an  open  Career  for  every  human  being. 

Starting  at  ten  o'clock  to-night,  we  had  an  arduous 
march  over  the  rough,  frozen  ground.  Hard  labor  and 
loss  of  sleep  began  to  tell  upon  us.  I  think  every 
member  of  the  party  had  his  mental  balance  more  or  less 
shaken.  Davis  was  haggard,  with  blood- shot  eyes ; 
"Junius"  was  pallid,  and  threatened  with  typhoid 
fever ;  Wolfe,  with  a  sprained  ankle,  could  barely  limp ; 
I  was  weak  and  short  of  breath,  from  the  pneumonic 


446  PURSUED  BY  A  HOME  GUARD.  [1864. 

affection.  Charley  Tlmrston  was  our  "best  foot,  and  we 
always  put  him  foremost.  With  his  Confederate  uni 
form  and  his  ready  invention,  he  could  play  Rebel 
soldier  admirably. 

Toward  morning  we  were  compelled  to  stop,  build  a 
fire  in  the  dense  pine-forest,  and  rest  for  an  hour.  We 
were  uncertain  about  the  roads,  and  just  before  day 
light  Charley  stopped  to  make  inquiries  of  an  old  far 
mer.  Then  we  went  on,  and,  as  the  road  was  very 
secluded,  were  talking  with  less  discretion  than  usual, 
when  a  twig  snapped  behind  us.  Instantly  turning 
around,  we  saw  the  old  man  following  stealthily,  listen 
ing  to  our  conversation.  We  ordered  him  to  halt ;  but 
he  ran  away  with  wonderful  agility  for  a  septuagena 
rian. 

The  moment  he  was  out  of  sight,  we  left  the  road,  and 
ran,  too,  in  an  opposite  direction,  fast  as  our  tired  limbs 
could  carry  us.  It  would  be  a  very  nice  point  to  deter 
mine  which  was  the  more  frightened,  we  or  our  late  pur 
suer.  We  afterward  learned  that  he  was  an  unrelenting 
Rebel  and  a  zealous  Home  Guard.  He  was  doubtless  en 
deavoring  to  follow  us  to  our  shelter,  that  he  might  bring 
out  his  company,  and  capture  us  during  the  day. 

Long  after  daylight  we  continued  running,  until  we 
had  put  five  miles  between  ourselves  and  the  road.  The 
region  was  very  open,  and  it  seemed  morally  certain  that 
we  would  be  discovered  through  the  barking  dogs  at 
some  of  the  farm-houses.  But  about  nine  o'clock  we 
halted  in  a  pine-grove,  small  but  thick,  and  built  a  great 
fire  of  rails,  which,  being  very  dry,  emitted  little  smoke. 
There  was  danger  that  the  blaze  would  be  discovered ; 
but  in  our  feeble  condition  we  could  no  longer  endure 
the  inclemency  of  the  weather. 


1864.]  HELP   IN   THE    LAST    EXTREMITY.  447 

VI.  Friday,  December  23. 

Hungry  and  fatigued,  with"  our  feet  to  the  fire,  we 
could  sleep  an  hour  at  a  time  upon  the  frozen  ground  be 
fore  the  cold  awakened  us.  When,  after  a  waiting  which 
seemed  endless,  the  welcome  darkness  came  at  last,  it 
lifted  a  load  from  our  hearts  ;  we  no  longer  listened  anx 
iously  for  the  coining  of  the  Guard. 

Starting  again,  we  toiled  on  with  slow  and  painful 
steps.  We  were  entering  a  region  where  slaves  were 
few,  and  we  could  find  no  negroes.  "  Junius,"  in  a  high 
fever,  was  so  weak  that  we  were  almost  compelled  to 
carry  him,  and  his  voice  was  faint  as  the  wail  of  an  in 
fant.  Again  and  again  he  begged  us  to  go  on,  and  leave 
him  to  rest  upon  the  ground.  We  had  sore  apprehensions 
that  it  might  become  necessary  to  commit  him  to  the  first 
friends  we  found,  and  press  forward  without  him. 

About  eight  o'  clock  Charley  entered  a  little  tavern  to 
procure  provisions.  He  assumed  his  favorite  character 
of  a  Rebel  soldier,  on  parole,  going  to  his  home  in 
Wilkes  County  for  the  holidays.  An  old  man  was 
spending  the  night  there.  While  supper  was  cooking, 
he  gave  to  Charley  a  recognizing  sign  of  the  Sons  of 
America.  It  was  instantly  answered  ;  and,  stepping  out 
side,  they  had  an  interview. 

Then  our  new  friend  stealthily  led  his  three  mules 
from  the  tavern  stable,  through  the  fields  to  the  road, 
placed  three  of  us  upon  them,  and  guided  us  five  miles, 
to  the  house  of  his  brother,  another  strong  Union  man. 
The  brother  warmed  us,  fed  us,  and  "stayed  us  with 
flagons"  of  apple-brandy;  then  brought  out  two  of  his 
mules,  and  again  we  pressed  forward.  They  cautioned 
us  not  to  intrust  the  secret  of  their  assistance  to  any  one, 
reminding  us  that  it  would  be  a  hanging  matter  for  them. 

So,  on  this  cold  winter  night,  while  we  were  so  stiff 


448          CARRIED  FIFTEEN  MILES  BY  FRIENDS.          [1864 

and  exhausted  that  we  could  Ibarely  keep  our  seats  on 
the  steeds  they  had  so  thoughtfully  furnished,  these 
kind  friends  conducted  us  fifteen  miles,  and  left  us  in  the 
Union  settlement  we  were  seeking,  fifty  miles  from  Salis 
bury. 


1864.]  CURIOUS  CONFUSION  OF  NAMES.  449 


CHAPTER    XLII. 


Weariness 


Can  snore  upon  the  flint 

CYMBELINB. 

,    .  Montana.  But  is  he  often  thus 

lago.  irTis  evermore  the  prologue  to  his  sleep. 

OTHELLO. 

IT  was  now  five  o'  clock  in  the  morning*  of  Saturday, 
December  24th,  the  seventh  day  of  our  escape.  Leaving 
my  companions  "behind,  I  tapped  at  the  door  of  a  log- 
house. 

"  Come  in,"  said  a  voice  ;  and  I  entered.  In  its  one 
room  the  children  and  father  were  still  in  bed  ;  the  wife 
was  already  engaged  in  her  daily  duties.  I  asked : 

"  Can  you  direct  me  to  the  widow  -  -  1" 

" There  are  two  widow-  — s,  in  this  neighbor 
hood,"  she  replied.  "  What  is  your  name  ?" 

I  was  seeking  information,  just  then,  not  giving  it ; 
so  avoiding  the  question,  I  added  : 

"  The  lady  I  mean,  has  a  son  who  is  an  officer  in  the 
army.' ' 

"They  both  have  sons  who  are  officers  in  the  army. 
Don't  be  afraid  ;  you  are  among  friends." 

"  Friends"  might  mean  Union  or  it  might  mean  Rebel ; 
so  I  accepted  no  amendments,  but  adhered  to  the  main 
question : 

"  This  officer  is  a  lieutenant,  and  his  name  is  John." 

"Well,"  said  she,  "they  are  both  lieutenants,  and 
John  is  the  name  of  both  !" 

I  knew  my  man  too  well  to  be  baffled.     I  continued  : 

29 


450         FOOD,  SHELTER,  AND  HOSTS  OF  FRIENDS.        [18G4. 

"He  is  in  the  second  regiment  of  the  Senior  Reserves  ; 
and  is  now  on  duty  at  -  — ." 

"  Oh,"  said  she,  "that  is  my  Ibrother !" 

At  once  I  told  her  what  we  were.  She  replied,  with  a 
wonderful  light  of  welcome  shining  in  her  eyes  : 

' c  If  you  are  Yankees,  all  I  have  to  say  is,  that  you 
have  come  to  exactly  the  right  place  !" 

And,  in  exuberant  joy,  she  bustled  about,  doing  a  dozen 
things  at  once,  talking  incoherently  the  while,  replenish 
ing  the  fire,  bringing  me  a  seat,  offering  me  food,  urging 
her  husband  to  hurry  out  for  the  rest  of  the  party.  At 
last  her  excitement  culminated  in  her  darting  under  the 
bed,  and  reappearing  on  the  surface  with  a  great  pint 
tumbler  filled  to  the  brim  with  apple-brandy.  There  was 
enough  to  intoxicate  our  whole  party  !  It  was  the  first 
form  of  hospitality  which  occurred  to  her.  Afterward, 
when  better  acquainted,  she  explained  : 

' '  You  were  the  first  Yankee  I  ever  saw.  The  moment 
I  observed  your  clothing,  I  knew  you  must  be  one,  and 
I  wanted  to  throw  my  arms  about  your  neck,  and  kiss 
you!" 

We  heartily  reciprocated  the  feeling.  Just  then  the 
only  woman  who  had  any  charms  for  us  was  the  Goddess 
of  Liberty  ;  and  this,  at  least,  was  one  of  her  hand 
maidens. 

We  were  soon  by  the  great  log  fire  of  a  house  where 
friends  awaited  us.  Belonging  to  the  secret  Union  organ 
ization,  they  had  received  intelligence  that  we  were  on 
the  way.  Our  feet  were  blistered  and  swollen  ;  mine 
were  frostbitten.  We  removed  our  clothing,  and  were 
soon  reposing  in  soft  feather  beds.  At  noon,  awakened 
for  breakfast,  we  found  "  Junius"  had  been  sleeping  like 
a  child,  and  was  now  hungry — a  relief  to  our  anxiety. 
After  the  meal  was  over,  we  returned  to  bed. 


1864.]  LOYALTY  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS.  451 

Our  friends  were  constantly  on  the  alert ;  but  the 
house  was  very  secluded,  and  they  were  not  compelled  to 
watch  outside.  There,  two  ferocious  dogs  were  on  guard, 
rendering  it  unsafe  for  any  one  to  come  within  a  hundred 
yards  of  them.  Nearly  all  the  people,  Loyal  and  Rebel, 
had  similar  sentinels.  Along  the  route,  we  had  been 
anathematizing  the  canine  race,  which  often  prevented  us 
from  approaching  negro-quarters  on  the  plantations  ;  but 
these  were  Union  dogs,  which  made  all  the  difference  in 
the  world. 

At  dark,  we  were  conducted  to  a  barn,  where,  wrapped 
in  quilts,  we  passed  a  comfortable  night. 

VIII.  Sunday,  December  25. 

Our  resting-place  was  in  Wilkes  County,  North  Caro 
lina,  among  the  outlying  spurs  of  the  Alleghanies — a 
county  so  strong  in  its  Union  sentiments,  that  the  Reb 
els  called  it  "  the  Old  United  States."  Among  the  moun 
tains  of  every  Southern  State,  a  vast  majority  of  the 
people  were  loyal.  Hilly  regions,  unadapted  to  cotton- 
culture,  contained  few  negroes  ;  and  where  there  was  no 
Slavery,  there  was  no  Rebellion.  Milton' s  verse — 

"The  mountain  nymph,  sweet  Liberty," 

contains  a  great  truth,  the  world  over. 

Our  self-sacrificing  friends  belonged  to  a  multitudin 
ous  family,  extending  through  a  settlement  many  miles 
in  length.  They  all  seemed  to  be  nephews,  cousins,  or 
brothers ;  and  the  white-haired  patriarch — at  seventy, 
erect  and  agile  as  a  boy, — in  whose  barn  we  remained 
to-day,  was  father,  grandfather,  or  uncle,  to  the  whole 
tribe.  His  loyalty  was  very  stanch  and  intense. 

"  The  Home  Guards,"  said  he,  uare  usually  pretty 
civil.  Occasionally  they  shoot  at  some  of  the  boys  who 


452  A  LEVEE  IN  A  BARN.  [1864 

are  hiding ;  "but  pretty  soon  afterward,  one  of  them  is 
found  in  the  woods  some  morning  with  a  hole  in  his 
head !  JL  suppose  there  are  a  thousand  young  men 
lying  out  in  this  county.  I  have  always  urged  them 
to  fight  the  Guards,  and  have  helped  to  supply  them 
with  ammunition.  Two  or  three  times,  regiments  from 
Lee' s  army  have  been  sent  here  to  hunt  conscripts  and 
deserters,  and  then  the  "boys  have  to  run.  I  have  a 
son  among  them  ;  "but  they  never  wounded  him  yet.  I 
asked  him  the  other  day :  '  Won't  you  kill  some  of  them 
"before  you  are  ever  captured  V  c  Well,  father,7  says  he, 
'  Pll  ~be  found  a  tryirt  F  I  reckon  he  will,  too  ;  for  he 
has  never  gone  without  his  rifle  these  two  years,  and  he 
can  "bring  down  a  squirrel  every  time,  from  the  top  of  yon 
oak  you  see  on  the  hill." 

The  barn  was  beside  a  public  road,  and  very  near  the 
house  of  a  woman  whose  Rebel  sympathies  were  strong. 
There  was  danger  that  any  one  entering  it  might  be  seen 
by  her  or  her  children,  who  were  running  about  the 
yard. 

But  we  held  quite  a  levee  to-day.  I  think  we  had 
fifty  visitors.  We  would  hear  the  opening  door  and 
stealthy  footsteps  upon  the  barn-floor  ;  then  a  soft  voice 
would  ask  : 

"Friends,  are  you  there?" 

We  would  rise  from  our  bed  of  hay,  and  come  forward 
to  the  front  of  the  loft,  to  find  some  member  of  this  great 
family  of  friends,  who  had  brought  his  wife  and  children 
to  see  the  Yankees.  We  would  converse  with  them  for 
a  few  minutes  ;  they  would  invariably  ask  if  there  was 
nothing  whatever  they  could  do  for  us,  invite  us  to  visit 
their  house  by  night,  and  express  the  warmest  wishes 
for  our  success.  They  did  this  with  such  perfect  sponta 
neity,  with  such  overflowing  hearts,  that  it  touched  us 


1864.]  VISITED  BY  AN  OLD  FRIEND.  453 

very  nearly.  Had  we  been  their  own  sons  or  brothers, 
they  could  not  have  treated  us  more  tenderly.  This 
Christmas  may  have  witnessed  more  "brilliant  gatherings 
than  ours  ;  "but  none,  I  am  sure,  warmed  "by  a  more  self- 
sacrificing  friendship.  •  » 

Among  others,  we  were  visited  "by  a  conscript,  who 
had  been  one  of  our  guards  at  Salisbury.  While  at  the 
prison,  his  great  portly  form  would  come  laboring  and 
puffing  up  the  stairs  to  our  quarters  ;  with  flushed  face, 
he  would  sit  down,  glance  cautiously  around  to  assure 
himself  that  none  but  friends  were  present,  then  question 
us  eagerly  about  the  North,  and  breathe  out  maledictions 
against  all  Confederates. 

The  Rebels,  suspecting  him,  determined  to  send  him  to 
Lee's  army.  But  he  was  just  then  taken  with  rheuma 
tism,  and  kept  his  quarters  for  six  weeks  !  At  last,  the 
day  before  he  was  to  start  for  Richmond,  he  obtained  per 
mission  of  the  surgeon  to  visit  the  village.  He  hobbled 
up  the  street,  groaning  piteously  ;  but,  after  turning  the 
first  corner,  threw  away  his  crutches,  plunged  into  the 
woods,  and  made  his  way  home  by  night.  He  now  re 
lated  his  experiences  with  a  quiet  chuckle,  and  was  very 
desirous  of  serving  us. 

He  was  able  to  give  me  a  pair  of  large  boots  in  place 
of  my  own,  which  lacerated  my  sore  and  swollen  feet. 
The  sharp  rocks,  hills,  and  stumps,  compelled  me  to  have 
the  new  boots  repaired  seven  times  before  reaching  our 
lines.  Two  nights'  traveling  would  quite  wear  out  the 
ill-tanned  leather  of  the  stoutest  soles. 

To-day,  our  friends  brought  us  twice  as  much  food  as 
we  wanted,  and  we  wanted  a  great  deal.  At  dark, 
alarmed  by  a  rumor  that  the  suspicions  of  the  Guard 
had  been  excited,  they  took  us  several  miles  into  a  neigh 
boring  county,  to  a  very  secluded  house,  occupied  by  the 


454  A  DAY  OF  ALARMS.  [1864. 

wife  and  daughters  of  an  officer  in  the  Confederate  army. 
Here  we  spent  the  night  in  inviting  beds. 

IX.  Monday,  December  26. 

Our  hostess,  a  comely  lady  of  thirty -five,  was  a  second 
Mrs.  Katie  Scudder — the  very  embodiment  of  "  Faculty." 
Her  plain  log  house,  with  its  snowy  curtains,  cheap  prints, 
and  engravings  cut  from  illustrated  newspapers,  was 
tasteful  and  inviting.  Her  five  daughters,  all  clothed  in 
fabric  spun  and  woven  at  home — for  these  people  were 
now  entirely  self-dependent — looked  as  pretty  and  tidy 
to  uncritical,  masculine  eyes,  as  if  robed  in  silk  and  cash 
mere. 

Our  pursuit  of  a  quiet  refuge  proved  ludicrously  un 
successful.  The  day  was  diversified  by 

"  More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have." 

-But  the  lady  bore  herself  with  such  coolness,  and  proved 
so  ready  for  every  emergency,  that  we  enjoyed  them  ra 
ther  than  otherwise. 

Early  in  the  morning,  while  standing  a  few  yards 
from  the  house,  I  saw  her  and  her  daughter  sud 
denly  step  into  the  open  doorway,  quite  filling  it  with 
their  persons  and  skirts,  and  earnestly  beckon  me  to  go 
in  out  of  sight.  Of  course,  I  obeyed.  A  woman  of  ques 
tionable  political  soundness  had  called ;  but  they  attracted 
her  in  another  direction,  keeping  her  face  turned  away 
from  the  door,  till  I  was  lost  to  sight. 

Several  parties  of  Rebel  cavalry  passed  down  the  road. 
Breckinridge's  army,  in  the  mountains  above,  had  recent 
ly  dissolved  in  a  great  thaw  and  break-up,  and  these 
were  the  small  fragments  of  ice  floating  down  toward  Vir 
ginia.  A  squad  of  a  dozen  stopped  and  entered  the 
house,  which  was  of  one  story,  the  length  of  three  large 


1864.]  READY  WIT  OF  A  WOMAN.  455 

rooms.  But  the  lady  kept  them  in  the  kitchen,  while  we 
were  shut  in  the  other  end  of  the  building. 

Next,  the  barking  dog  warned  us  of  approaching  foot 
steps.  At  her  suggestion,  we  went  up  into  the  corn-loft, 
above  our  apartment.  The  new  visitor  was  a  neighbor, 
to  whom  she  owed  a  bushel  of  corn,  and  who,  with  his 
ox-cart,  had  come  to  collect  it.  With  ready  woman7  s 
wit,  she  said  to  him  : 

6 l  You  know  my  husband  is  away.  I  have  no  fuel. 
Won't  you  go  and  haul  me  a  load  of  wood,  as  a  Christ 
mas  present?" 

Who  could  resist  such  a  feminine  appeal?  The 
neighbor  went  for  the  wood,  while  she  came  laughing 
in,  to  tell  us  her  stratagem.  We  descended  from  the 
corn-loft,  and  went  into  a  back  room,  where  there  were 
two  beds,  one  large  and  the  other  small,  with  an  open 
door  between  them.  Four  of  us  crept  under  the  large 
bed,  one  under  the  small  one  ;  and  here  we  had  an  expe 
rience,  ludicrous  enough  to  remember,  but  not  so  pleasant 
to  undergo. 

One  of  our  party  was  an  inveterate  snorer.  Whenever 
he  took  a  recumbent  position,  with  his  head  upon  the 
ground  or  the  floor,  he  would  begin  snoring  like  a  steam- 
engine.  Like  all  persons  of  that  class,  when  reminded  of 
it,  he  steadfastly  vowed  that  he  never  snored  in  all  his 
life  !  For  a  time,  he  regarded  our  awakening  him,  with 
rebuke  and  caution,  as  a  sorry  practical  joke. 

Thus  far,  I  believe  our  danger  of  detection  had 
been  greater  from  this  source  than  from  any  other. 
We  had  always  traveled  in  single  file,  almost  like 
specters,  with  our  leader  thrown  out  as  far  ahead  as, 
we  could  keep  him  in  view.  Whenever  he  thought  he 
saw  danger,  he  raised  a  warning  hand  ;  every  man 
passed  the  sign  back  to  those  in  his  rear,  and  dropped 


456          DANGER  OF  DETECTION  FROM  SNORING. 

quietly  "behind  a  log,  or  stepped  into  the  "bushes,  until 
the  person  had  passed  or  the  alarm  was  explained.  We 
walked  with  softest  footsteps,  no  man  coughing,  or 
speaking  above  his  breath.  During  the  day  we  were 
often  concealed  in  very  public  places,  only  a  few  feet 
from  the  road,  where,  the  ground  being  covered  with 
snow,  we  could  not  hear  approaching  footsteps. 

Now,  our  musical  companion  chanced  to  go  under  the 
small  bed,  and  in  three  minutes  we  heard  his  trumpet- 
tongued  snore.  At  first,  we  whispered  to  him  ;  but  we 
might  as  well  have  talked  to  Niagara.  If  one  of  us  went 
to  him,  there  was  danger  that  the  neighbor,  who  stood 
upon  the  front  porch,  would  see  us  through  the  open  door ; 
but  if  we  did  not,  that  fatal  snore  was  certain  to  be  heard. 
So  I  darted  across  the  room,  crept  in  beside  my  friend, 
and  kept  him  well  shaken  until  the  danger  was  over. 

At  night,  the  lady  told  us  that  more  people  had  come  to 
her  house  during  the  day  than  ever  visited  it  in  a  month 
before ;  and  we  were  marched  back  through  the  darkness, 
to  our  first  place  of  concealment. 

X.  Tuesday,  December  27. 

In  the  barn  through  the  whole  day.  A  messenger 
brought  us  a  note  from  two  late  fellow-prisoners,  Captain 
William  Boothby,  a  Philadelphia  mariner,  and  Mr.  John 
Mercer,  a  Unionist,  of  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  who  had 
been  in  duress  almost  three  years.  They  were  now  hid 
ing  in  a  barn  two  miles  from  us.  They  escaped  from  Salis 
bury  two  nights  later  than  we,  paying  the  guards  eight 
hundred  dollars  in  Confederate  money  to  let  them  out. 

Thurston  at  once  joined  them.  During  the  rest  of  the 
journey,  we  sometimes  traveled  and  hid  together  for  sev 
eral  days  and  nights ;  but,  when  there  was  special  danger, 
divided  into  two  companies,  one  keeping  twenty -four 


1864.]        PROMISES  TO  AID  SUFFERING  COMRADES.         457 

hours  in  advance — the  smaller  the  party,  the  less  peril 
"being  involved. 

Now,  for  the  first  time,  we  began  to  have  some  hope 
of  reaching  our  lines.  But  the  road  was  still  very  long, 
and  fraught  with  many  dangers.  We  examined  the  appall 
ing  list  of  dead,  which  I  had  brought  from  Salisbury,  and 
talked  much  of  our  companions  left  behind  in  that  living 
entombment.  Remembering  how  earnestly  they  longed 
and  prayed  for  some  intelligent,  trustworthy  voice  to 
bear  to  the  Government  and  the  people  tidings  of  their 
terrible  condition,  we  pledged  each  other  very  solemnly, 
that  if  any  one  of  us  lived  to  regain  home  and  freedom, 
he  should  use  earnest,  unremitting  efforts  to  excite  sym 
pathy  and  secure  relief  for  them. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  say,  that  upon 
reaching  the  North,  before  visiting  our  families,  or  per 
forming  any  other  duties,  we  hastened  to  Washington,  and 
used  every  endeavor  to  call  the  attention  of  the  authorities 
and  the  country  to  the  Salisbury  prisoners.  Before  many 
weeks,  all  who  survived  were  exchanged  ;  but  more  than 
five  thousand — upwards  of  half  the  number  who  were 
taken  to  Salisbury  five  months  before — were  already 
buried  just  outside  the  garrison. 

Those  five  thousand  loyal  graves  will  ever  remain  fit 
ting  monuments  of  Rebel  cruelty,  and  of  the  atrocious 
inhumanity  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  who 
steadfastly  refused  to  exchange  these  prisoners,  on  the 
ground  that  we  could  not  afford  to  give  the  enemy  robust, 
vigorous  men  for  invalids  and  skeletons,  and  yet  re 
frained  from  compelling  them  to  treat  prisoners  with 
humanity,  by  just  and  discriminating  retaliation  upon  an 
equal  number  of  Rebel  officers,  taken  from  the  great  ex 
cess  held  by  our  Government. 

To-day,  as  usual,  we  saw  a  large  number  of  the  Union 


458  BLIND  AND  UNQUESTIONING  LOYALTY.  [1864. 

mountaineers.  Theirs  was  a  very  blind  and  unreason 
ing  loyalty,  much  like  the  disloyalty  of  some  enthusiastic 
Rebels.  They  did  not  say  ' '  Unionist, "  or  "  Secessionist, ' ' 
but  always  designated  a  political  friend  thus:  "He  is 
one  of  the  right  sort  of  people ' '  — strong  in  the  faith  that 
there  could,  by  no  possibility,  be  more  than  one  side  to 
the  question.  They  had  little  education  ;  but  when  they 
began  to  talk  about  the  Union,  their  eyes  lighted  wonder 
fully,  and  sometimes  they  grew  really  eloquent.  They  did 
not  believe  one  word  in  a  Rebel  newspaper,  except  ex 
tracts  from  the  Northern  journals,  and  reports  favorable* 
to  our  Cause.  They  thought  the  Union  army  had  never 
been  defeated  in  a  single  battle.  I  heard  them  say  repeat 
edly  : 

"  The  United  States  can  take  Richmond  any  day  when 
it  wants  to.  That  it  has  not,  thus  far,  is  owing  to  no  lack 
of  power,  but  because  it  was  not  thought  best." 

They  regarded  every  Rebel  as  necessarily  an  unmiti 
gated  scoundrel,  and  every  Loyalist,  particularly  every 
native-born  Yankee,  almost  as  an  angel  from  heaven. 

How  earnestly  they  questioned  us  about  the  North ! 
How  they  longed  to  escape  thither  !  To  them,  indeed,  it 
was  the  Promised  Land.  They  were  very  bitter  in  their 
denunciations  of  the  heavy  slaveholders,  who  had  done 
so  much  to  degrade  white  labor,  and  finally  brought  on 
this  terrible  war. 

They  had  an  abundance  of  the  two  great  Southern 
staples — corn-bread  and  pork.  They  felt  severely  the 
absence  of  their  favorite  beverage,  and  would  ask  us, 
with  amusing  earnestness,  if  they  could  get  coffee  when 
our  armies  came.  The  Confederate  substitutes — burnt 
corn  and  rye  —  they  regarded  with  earnest  and  well- 
founded  aversion. 

They  were  compelled  to  use  thorns  for  fastening  the 


1864.]  A  REPENTANT  REBEL.  459 

clothing  of  the  women  and  children.  We  distributed 
among  them  our  small  supply  of  pins,  to  their  infinite 
delectation.  Davis  also  gladdened  the  hearts  of  all  the 
womankind  "by  disbursing  a  needle  to  each.  A  needle 
nominally  represented  five  dollars  in  Confederate  cur 
rency,  but  actually  could  not  be  purchased  at  any  price. 

A  number  of  the  young  men  "  lying  out"  desired  to 
accompany  us  to  the  North.  Some  were  deserters  from 
the  Rebel  army ;  others,  more  fortunate,  had  evaded  con 
scription  from  the  beginning  of  the  war.  But  their  lives 
had  been  passed  in  that  remote  county  of  North  Carolina, 
and  the  two  hundred  and  ninety  miles  yet  to  be  accom 
plished  stretched  out  in  appalling  prospective.  They  saw 
many  lions  in  the  way,  and,  Festus-like,  at  the  last  mo 
ment,  decided  to  wait  for  a  more  convenient  season.  It 
was  not  from  lack  of  nerve ;  for  some  of  them  had  fought 
Rebel  guards  with  great  coolness  and  bravery. 

Our  friends  feared  that  one  slaveholding  Secessionist 
in  the  neighborhood  might  learn  of  our  presence,  and 
betray  us.  He  did  ascertain  our  whereabouts,  but  sent 
us  an  invitation  to  visit  his  house,  offering  to  supply  all 
needed  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  He  said  he  foolishly 
acquiesced  in  the  Revolution  because  at  first  it  seemed 
certain  to  succeed,  and  he  wished  to  save  his  property ; 
but  that  now  he  heartily  repented. 

Possibly  his  conversion  was  partially  owing  to  re 
morse  for  having  persuaded  his  two  sons  to  enter  the 
Rebel  army.  One,  after  much  suffering,  had  deserted, 
and  was  now  "  lying  out"  near  home.  The  other, 
wounded  and  captured  in  a  Virginia  battle,  was  still  in  a 
Northern  prison,  where  he  had  been  confined  for  many 
months.  The  father  was  very  desirous  of  sending  to  him 
a  message  of  sympathy  and  affection. 

But  he  was   an  index   of  the   change  which    had 


460      SANGUINE  HOPES  OF  LOYAL  MOUNTAINEERS, 

recently  come  over  Bebel  sympathizers  in  that  whole 
region.  The  condition  of  our  armies  then  was  not  pecu 
liarly  promising.  We  were  by  no  means  sanguine  that 
the  war  would  soon  terminate.  But  the  loyal  mountain 
eers,  with  unerring  instinct,  were  all  confident  that  we 
were  near  its  close,  and  constantly  surprised  us  by  speak 
ing  of  the  Rebellion  as  a  thing  of  the  past.  We  fancied 
their  wish  was  father  to  the  thought ;  but  they  proved 
truer  prophets  than  we. 


18G4.]  FLANKING  A  REBEL  CAMP.  461 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 

Nay,  but  make  haate,  the  better  foot  before. 

KINO  JOHN. 

the  evening  of  the  eleventh  day,  Wednesday, 
December  28,  we  left  the  kind  friends  with  whom  we 
had  stayed  for  five  days  and  four  nights,  gaining  new 
vigor  and  inspired  "by  new  hope.  Their  last  injunction 
was: 

"Remember,  you  cannot  be  too  careful.  We  shall 
pray  God  that  you  may  reach  your  homes  in  safety. 
When  you  are  there,  do  not  forget  us,  but  do  send  troops 
to  open  a  way  by  which  we  can  escape  to  the  North.'5 

In  their  simplicity,  they  fancied  Yankees  omnipo 
tent,  and  that  we  could  send  them  an  army  by  merely  > 
saying  the  word.  They  bade  us  adieu  with  embraces 
and  tears.  I  am  sure  many  a  fervent  prayer  went  up 
from  their  humble  hearths,  that  Our  Father  would 
guide  us  through  the  difficulties  of  our  long,  wearisome 
journey,  and  guard  us  against  the  perils  which  beset  and 
environed  it. 

At  ten  o'clock  we  passed  within  two  hundred  yards 
of  a  Rebel  camp.  We  could  hear  the  neigh  of  the 
horses  and  the  tramp  of  four  or  five  sentinels  on  their 
rounds.  We  trod  very  softly  ;  to  our  stimulated  senses 
every  sound  was  magnified,  and  every  cracking  twig 
startled  us. 

Leaving  us  in  the  road  a  few  yards  behind,  our  pilot 
entered  the  house  of  his  friend,  a  young  deserter  from  the 
Rebel  army.  Finding  no  one  there  but  the  family,  he 


462  SECRETED  AMONG  THE  HUSKS. 

called  us  in,  to  rest  by  the  log  fire,  while  the  deserter 
rose  from  "bed,  and  donned  his  clothing  to  lead  us 
three  miles  and  point  out  a  secluded  path.  For  many 
months  he  had  been  " lying  out;"  but  of  late,  as  the 
Guards  were  less  vigilant  than  usual,  he  sometimes 
ventured  to  sleep  at  home.  His  girlish  wife  wished  him 
to  accompany  us  through  ;  but,  with  the  infant  sleeping 
in  the  cradle,  which  was  hewn  out  of  a  great  log,  she 
formed  a  tie  too  strong  for  him  to  break.  At  parting, 
she  shook  each  of  us  by  the  hand,  saying : 

"  I  hope  you  will  get  safely  home  ;  but  there  is  great 
danger,  and  you  must  be  powerful  cautious." 

At  eleven  o'clock  our  guide  left  us  in  the  hands  of 
a  negro,  who,  after  our  chilled  limbs  were  warmed,  led  us 
on  our  way.  By  two  in  the  morning  we  had  accom 
plished  thirteen  miles  over  the  frozen  hills,  and  reached 
a  lonely  house  in  a  deep  valley,  beside  a  tumbling,  flash 
ing  torrent. 

The  farmer,  roused  with  difficulty  from  his  heavy 
slumbers,  informed  us  that  Boothby'  s  party,  which  had 
arrived  twenty-four  hours  in  advance  of  us,  was  sleep 
ing  in  his  barn.  He  sent  us  half  a  mile  to  the  house  of 
a  neighbor,  who  fanned  the  dying  embers  on  his  great 
hearth,  regaled  us  with  the  usual  food,  and  then  took  us 
to  a  barn  in  the  forest. 

"  Climb  up  on  that  scaifolding,"  said  he.  "  Among 
the  husks  you  will  find  two  or  three  quilts.  They  be 
long  to  my  son,  who  is  lying  out.  To-night  he  is  sleep 
ing  with  some  friends  in  the  woods." 

The  cold  wind  blew  searchingly  through  the  open 
barn,  but  before  daylight  we  were  wrapped  in  "the 
mantle  that  covers  all  human  thoughts." 


1864]  WANDERING  FROM  THE  ROAD.  463 

XII.   Thursday,  December  29. 

At  dark,  our  host,  leaving  us  in  a  thicket,  five 
hundred  yards  from  his  house,  went  forward  to  recon- 
noiter.  Finding  the  coast  clear,  he  beckoned  us  on  to 
supper  and  ample  potations  of  apple-brandy. 

With  difficulty  we  induced  one  of  his  neighbors  to 
guide  us.  Though  unfamiliar  with  the  road,  he  was  an 
excellent  walker,  swiftly  leading  us  over  the  rough 
ground,  which  tortured  our  sensitive  feet,  and  up  and 
down  sharp,  rocky  hills. 

At  two  in  the  morning  we  flanked  Wilkesboro,  the 
capital  of  Wilkes  County.  To  a  chorus  of  barking  dogs, 
we  crept  softly  around  it,  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of 
the  houses.  The  air  was  full  of  snow,  and  when  we 
reached  the  hills  again,  the  biting  wind  was  hard  to 
breathe. 

We  walked  about  a  mile  through  the  dense  woods, 
when  Captain  Wolfe,  who  had  been  all  the  time  declar 
ing  that  the  North  Star  was  on  the  wrong  side  of  us,  con 
vinced  our  pilot  that  he  had  mistaken  the  road,  and  we 
retraced  our  steps  to  the  right  thoroughfare. 

We  stopped  to  warm  for  half  an  hour  at  a  negro- 
cabin,  where  the  blacks  told  us  all  they  knew  about  the 
routes  and  the  Rebels.  Before  morning  we  were  greatly 
broken  down,  and  our  guide  was  again  in  doubt  concern 
ing  the  roads.  So  we  entered  a  deep  ravine  in  the  pine- 
woods,  built  a  great  fire,  and  waited  for  daylight. 

XIII.  Friday,  December  30. 

After  dawn,  we  pressed  forward,  reluctantly  com 
pelled  to  pass  near  two  or  three  houses. 

We  reached  the  Yadkin  River  just  as  a  young, 
blooming  woman,  with  a  face  like  a  ripe  apple,  came 
gliding  across  the  stream.  With  a  long  pole,  she  guided 


464  CROSSING  THE  YADKIN  RIVER.  [1864. 

the  great  log  canoe,  which  contained  herself,  a  pail  of 
"butter,  and  a  side-saddle,  indicating  that  she  had  started 
for  the  Wilkesboro  market.  Assisting  her  to  the  shore, 
we  asked : 

"  Will  you  tell  us  where  Ben  Hanby  lives  ?" 

"  Just  beyond  the  hill  there,  across  the  river,"  she 
replied,  with  scrutinizing,  suspicious  eyes. 

"  How  far  is  it  to  his  house  ?" 

"  I  don't  know." 

"  More  than  a  mile  ?" 

"No"  (doubtfully),  " I  reckon  not." 

"Is  he  probably  at  home  ?" 

"No!"  (emphatically).  "He  is  not!  Are  you  the 
Home  Guard?" 

"By  no  means,  madam.  We  are  Union  men,  and 
Yankees  at  that.  We  have  escaped  from  Salisbury,  and 
are  trying  to  reach  our  homes  in  the  North." 

After  another  searching  glance,  she  trusted  us  fully, 
and  said : 

"Ben  Hanby  is  my  husband.  He  is  lying  out.  I 
wondered,  if  you  were  the  Guard,  what  you  could  be 
doing  without  guns.  From  a  hill  near  our  house,  the 
children  saw  you  coming  more  than  an  hour  ago ;  and 
my  husband,  taking  you  for  the  soldiers,  went  with  his 
rifle  to  join  his  companions  in  the  woods.  Word  has 
gone  to  every  Union  house  in  the  neighborhood  that  the 
troops  are  out  hunting  deserters." 

We  embarked  in  the  log  canoe,  and  shipped  a  good 
deal  of  water  before  reaching  the  opposite  shore.  We 
had  two  sea-captains  on  board,  and  concluded  that,  with 
one  sailor  more,  we  should  certainly  have  been  hope 
lessly  wrecked. 

A  winding  forest-path  led  to  the  lonely  house  we 
sought,  where  we  found  no  one  at  home,  except  three  chil- 


1864.]  AMONG  UNION  BUSHWHACKERS.  465 

dren  of  our  fair  informant  and  their  grandmother.  For 
more  than  two  hours  we  could  not  allay  the  woman's 
suspicions  that  we  were  Guards.  They  had  recently 
been  adopting  Yankee  disguises,  deceiving  "Union  peo 
ple,  and  beguiling  them  of  damaging  information. 

As  indignantly  as  General  Damas  inquires  whether  he 
looks  like  a  married  man,  we  asked  the  cautious  woman 
if  we  resembled  Eebels.  At  last,  convinced  that  we 
were  veritable  Yankees,  she  gave  us  breakfast,  and  sent 
one  of  the  children  with  us  to  a  sunny  hillside  among 
the  pines,  where  we  slept  off  the  weariness  and  soreness 
caused  by  the  night' s  march  of  sixteen  miles. 

At  evening  a  number  of  friends  visited  us.  As  they 
were  not  merely  Rebel  deserters,  but  Union  bushwhack 
ers  also,  we  scanned  them  with  curiosity ;  for  we  had 
been  wont  to  regard  bushwhackers,  of  either  side,  with 
vague,  undefined  horror. 

These  men  were  walking  arsenals.  Each  had  a  trusty 
rifle,  one  or  two  navy  revolvers,  a  great  bowie  knife, 
haversack,  and  canteen.  Their  manners  were  quiet,  their 
faces  honest,  and  one  had  a  voice  of  rare  sweetness. 
As  he  stood  tossing  his  baby  in  the  air,  with  his  little 
daughter  clinging  to  his  skirt,  he  looked 


•"  the  mildest-mannered  man, 


That  ever  scuttled  ship  or  cut  a  throat." 

He  and  his  neighbors  had  adopted  this  mode  of  life, 
because  determined  not  to  fight  against  the  old  flag. 
They  would  not  attempt  the  uncertain  journey  to  our 
lines,  leaving  their  families  in  the  country  of  the  enemy. 
Ordinarily  very  quiet  and  rational,  whenever  the  war  was 
spoken  of,  their  eyes  emitted  that  peculiar  glare  which  I 
had  observed,  years  before,  in  Kansas,  and  which  seems 
inseparable  from  the  hunted  man.  They  said  : 

30 


466  Two  UNION  SOLDIERS  "  LYING  OUT."          [1864 

"When  the  Rebels  let  us  alone,  we  let  them  alone ; 
when  they  come  out  to  hunt  us,  we  hunt  them  !  They 
know  that  we  are  in  earnest,  and  that  before  they  can 
kill  any  one  of  us,  he  will  break  a  hole  in  the  ice  large 
enough  to  drag  two  or  three  of  them  along  with  him. 
At  night  we  sleep  in  the  bush.  When  we  go  home  by 
day,  our  children  stand  out  on  picket.  They  and  our 
wives  bring  food  to  us  in  the  woods.  When  the  Guards 
are  coming  out,  some  of  the  Union  members  usually  in 
form  us  beforehand ;  then  we  collect  twenty  or  thirty 
men,  find  the  best  ground  we  can,  and,  if  they  discover 
us,  fight  them.  But  a  number  of  skirmishes  have 
taught  them  to  be  very  wary  about  attacking  us." 

In  this  dreary  mode  of  life  they  seemed  to  find  a  cer 
tain  fascination.  While  we  took  supper  at  the  house  of 
one  of  them,  eight  bushwhackers,  armed  to  the  teeth, 
stood  outside  on  guard.  For  once,  at  least,  enjoying 
what  Macbeth  vainly  coveted,  we  took  our  meal  in  peace. 

Two  of  them  were  United  States  volunteers,  who  had 
come  stealthily  home  on  furlough,  from  our  army  in  Ten 
nessee.  They  were  the  first  Union  soldiers  we  had  seen 
at  liberty  for  nearly  two  years.  Their  faces  were  very 
welcome,  and  their  worn,  soiled  uniforms  were  to  our 
eyes  the  reflection  of  heaven' s  own  blue.  Our  friends 
urged  us  to  remain,  one  of  them  saying  : 

"The  snow  is  deep  on  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alle- 
ghanies ;  the  Rebels  can  easily  trace  you  ;  the  guerrillas 
are  unusually  vigilant,  and  it  is  very  unsafe  to  attempt 
crossing  the  mountains  at  present.  I  started  for  Knox- 
ville  three  weeks  ago,  and,  after  walking  fifty  miles,  was 
compelled  to  turn  back.  Stay  with  us  until  the  snow  is 
gone,  and  the  Guards  less  on  the  alert.  We  will  each  of 
us  take  two  of  you  under  our  special  charge,  and  feed 
and  shelter  you  until  next  May,  if  you  desire  it." 


1864.]  Two  ESCAPING  REBEL  DESERTERS.  467 

The  Blue  Ridge  was  still  twenty-five  miles  away,  and 
we  determined  to  push  on  to  a  point  where  we  could  look 
the  danger,  if  danger  there  were,  directly  in  the  face. 
The  bushwhackers,  therefore,  piloted  us  through  the 
darkness  and  the  bitter  cold  for  seven  miles.  At  mid 
night,  we  reached  the  dwelling  of  a  Union  man.  He 
said: 

' '  As  the  house  is  unsafe,  I  shall  "be  compelled  to  put 
you  in  my  barn.  You  will  find  two  Rebel  deserters 
sleeping  there." 

The  barn  was  upon  a  high  hill.  We  burrowed  among 
the  husks,  at  first  to  the  infinite  alarm  of  the  deserters, 
who  thought  the  Philistines  were  upon  them.  While  we 
shivered  in  the  darkness,  they  told  us  that  they  had  come 
from  Petersburg — more  than  five  hundred  miles — and 
been  three  months  on  the  journey.  They  had  found 
friends  all  the  way,  among  negroes  and  Union  men. 
Ragged,  dirty,  and  penniless,  they  said,  very  quietly, 
that  they  were  going  to  reach  the  Yankee  lines,  or  die  in 
the  attempt. 

Before  daylight  our  host  visited  us,  and  finding  that  we 
suffered  from  the  weather,  placed  us  in  a  little  warm  store 
house,  close  beside  the  public  road.  To  our  question, 
whether  the  Guards  had  ever  searched  it,  he  replied  : 

"  Oh,  yes,  frequently,  but  they  never  happened  to  find 
anybody." 

After  we  were  snugly  ensconced  in  quilts  and  corn 
stalks,  Davis  said : 

"  What  an  appalling  journey  still  stretches  before  us  ! 
I  fear  the  lamp  of  my  energy  is  nearly  burned  out." 

I  could  not  wonder  at  his  despondency.  For  several 
years  he  had  been  half  an  invalid,  suffering  from  a  spinal 
affection.  For  weeks  before  leaving  Salisbury,  he  was 
often  compelled,  of  an  afternoon,  to  lie  upon  his  bunk  of 


468  AN  ENERGETIC  INVALID.  [1864. 

straw  with  blinding  headache,  and  every  nerve  quiver 
ing  with  pain.  "Junius"  and  myself  frequently  said: 
"  Davis' s  courage  is  unbounded,  but  he  can  never  live 
to  walk  to  Knoxville." 

The  event  proved  us  false  prophets.  Nightly  he  led 
our  party — always  the  last  to  pause  and  the  first  to  start. 
His  lamp  of  energy  was  so  far  from  being  exhausted  that, 
before  he  reached  our  lines,  he  broke  down  every  man  in 
the  party.  I  expect  to  suffer  to  my  dying  day  from  the 
killing  pace  of  that  energetic  invalid. 

XIV.  Saturday,  December  31. 

Spent  all  this  cold  day  and  night  sleeping  in  the  quilts 
and  fodder  of  the  little  store-house.  At  evening,  Booth- 
by's  party  went  forward,  as  the  next  thirty-five  miles 
were  deemed  specially  perilous. 


1865.]  MONEY  CONCEALED  IN  CLOTHING.  4G9 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 

Pray  you   tread  softly,  that  the  blind  inole  may  not 
Hear  a  foot-fall  1 

TEMPEST. 

There's  bnt  a  shirt  and  a  half  in  all  my  company,  and  the  half  shirt  is  two  napkins  pinned 
together  and  thrown  over  the  shoulders. 

KING  HENRY  IV. 

OUK  emaciated  condition,  hard  labor,  and  the  "bracing 
mountain  air,  conspired  to  make  us  ravenous.  In  quan 
tity,  the  pork  and  corn-bread  which  we  devoured  was 
almost  miraculous  ;  in  quality,  it  seemed  like  the  nectar 
and  ambrosia  of  the  immortal  gods.  It  was  far  better 
adapted  to  our  necessities  than  the  daintiest  luxuries  of 
civilization.  In  California,  Australia,  and  Colorado  gold 
mines,  on  the  New  Orleans  levee,  and  wherever  else  the 
most  trying  physical  labor  is  to  be  performed,  pork  and 
corn-bread  have  been  found  the  best  articles  of  food. 

The  Loyalists  were  all  ready  to  feed,  shelter,  and  direct 
us,  but  reluctant  to  accompany  us  far  from  their  homes. 
They  would  say : 

"  You  need  no  guides ;  the  road  is  so  plain,  that  you 
cannot  possibly  miss  it." 

But  midnight  journeys  among  the  narrow  lanes  and 
obscure  mountain-paths  had  taught  us  that  we  could  miss 
any  road  whatever  which  was  not  inclosed  upon  both 
sides  by  fences  too  high  for  climbing.  Therefore,  we  in 
sisted  upon  pilots. 

Fortunately,  I  had  left  Salisbury  with  a  one-hundred- 
dollar  United  States  note  concealed  under  the  hem  of  each 
leg  of  my  pantaloons,  just  above  the  instep,  and  two  more 
sewn  in  the  lining  of  my  coat.  I  had  in  my  portmonnaie 


470  IMMINENT  PERIL  OF  UNION  CITIZENS. 

fifty  dollars  in  Northern  bank-notes,  five  dollars  in  gold, 
and  a  hundred  dollars  in  Confederate  currency.  Davis 
brought  away  about  the  same  amount.  We  should  have 
left  it  with  our  fellow-prisoners,  but  for  the  probability 
of  being  recaptured  and  confined,  where  money  would 
serve  us  in  our  extremest  need.  Now  it  enabled  us  to 
remunerate  amply  both  our  white  and  black  friends. 
Sometimes  the  mountaineers  would  say : 

' '  We  do  not  do  these  things  for  money.  We  have  fed 
and  assisted  hundreds  of  refugees  and  escaping  prison 
ers,  but  never  received  a  cent  for  it." 

Those  whom  they  befriended  were  usually  penniless. 
We  appreciated  their  kindness  none  the  less  because  for 
tunate  enough  to  be  able  to  recompense  them.  They 
were  unable  to  resist  the  argument  that,  when  our  forces 
came,  they  would  need  "  green-backs"  to  purchase  coffee. 

Every  man  who  gave  us  a  meal,  sheltered  us  in  his 
house  or  barn,  pointed  out  a  refuge  in  the  woods,  or 
directed  us  one  mile  upon  our  journey,  did  it  at  the  cer 
tainty,  if  discovered,  of  being  imprisoned,  or  forced  into 
the  Rebel  army,  whether  sick  or  well,  and  at  the  risk  of 
having  his  house  burned  over  his  head.  In  many  cases, 
discovery  would  have  resulted  in  his  death  by  shooting, 
or  hanging  in  sight  of  his  own  door. 

During  our  whole  journey  we  entered  only  one  house 
inhabited  by  white  Unionists,  which  had  never  been 
plundered  by  Home  Guards  or  Rebel  guerrillas.  Almost 
every  loyal  family  had  given  to  the  Cause  some  of  its 
nearest  and  dearest.  We  were  told  so  frequently — "  My 
father  was  killed  in  those  woods  ;"  or,  "  The  guerrillas 
shot  my  brother  in  that  ravine,"  that,  finally,  these  trage 
dies  made  little  impression  upon  us.  The  mountaineers 
never  seemed  conscious  that  they  were  doing  any 
heroic  or  self-sacrificing  thing.  Their  very  sufferings 


1865.]  FORDING  CREEKS  AT  MIDNIGHT.  471 

had  greatly  intensified  their  love  for  the  Union,  and  their 
faith  in  its  ultimate  triumph. 

Drowsily  wondering  at  our  capacity  for  sleep,  we 
dozed  through  the  first  day  of  the  New  Year,  and  the 
fifteenth  of  our  liberty.  After  dark  we  spent  two  hours 
in  the  hoilse  "before  the  log  fire.  The  good  woman  had 
one  son  already  escaped  to  the  North — a  fresh  link  which 
"bound  her  mother-heart  to  that  ideal  paradise.  She  fed 
us,  mended  our  clothing,  and  parted  from  us  with  the 
heartiest  "  God  bless  you  !" 

Her  youngest  Iborn,  a  lad  of  eleven  years,  accom 
panied  us  five  miles  to  the  house  of  a  Unionist,  who 
received  us  without  leaving  his  bed.  He  gave  us  such 
minute  information  about  the  faint,  obscure  road  that  we 
found  little  difficulty  in  keeping  it. 

Through  the  biting  air  we  pressed  rapidly  up  the  nar 
row  valley  of  a  clear,  tumbling  mountain  stream,  whose 
frowning  banks,  several  hundred  feet  in  hight, 
were  covered  with  pines  and  hemlocks.  In  twelve  miles 
the  road  crossed  the  creek  twenty-nine  times.  Instead 
of  bridges  were  fords  for  horsemen  and  wagons,  and 
foot-logs  for  pedestrians.  Cold  and  stiff,  we  discovered 
that  crossing  the  smooth,  icy  logs  in  the  darkness  was  a 
hazardous  feat.  Wolfe  was  particularly  lame,  and  slip 
ped  several  times  into  the  icy  torrent,  but  managed  to 
flounder  out  without  much  delay.  He  endured  with 
great  serenity  all  our  suggestions,  that  even  though  water 
was  his  native  element,  he  had  a  very  eccentric  taste  to  pre 
fer  swimming  to  walking,  in  that  state  of  the  atmosphere. 

At  one  crossing  the  log  was  swept  away.  We  wan 
dered  up  and  down  the  stream,  which  was  about  a  hun 
dred  feet  wide,  but  could  find  riot  even  the  hair  which 
Mahomet  discovered  to  be  the  bridge  over  the  bottomless 
pit.  But  as  canoes  are  older  than  ships,  so  legs  are  more 


472        "  LOOPED  AND  WINDOWED  RAGGEDNESS."        [ises 

primitive   than  Ibridges.      We  e'en  plunged  in,  waist 
deep,  and  waded  through,  among  the  cakes  of  floating  ice. 

Our  wardrobes  were  suffering  quite  as  much  as  our 
persons.  We  did  not  carry  looking-glasses,  so  I  am  not 
able  to  speak  of  myself ;  but  my  colleague  was  a  subject 
for  a  painter.  Any  one  seeing  him  must  have  been  con 
vinced  that  he  was  made  up  for  the  occasion ;  that  his 
looped  and  windowed  raggedness  never  could  have  re 
sulted  from  any  natural  combination  of  circumstances. 
The  fates  seemed  to  decree  that  as  "Junius"  went  naked 
into  the  Confederacy  (leaving  most  of  his  wardrobe  on 
deposit  at  the  bottom  of  the  Mississippi),  he  should  come 
out  of  it  in  the  same  condition. 

Overcoat  he  had  none.  Pantaloons  had  been  torn  to 
shreds  and  tatters  by  the  brambles  and  thorn-bushes. 
He  had  a  hat  which  was  not  all  a  hat.  It  was  given 
to  him,  after  he  had  lost  his  own  in  a  Rebel  barn,  by  a 
warm-hearted  African,  as  a  small  tribute  from  the  Intelli 
gent  Contraband  to  his  old  friend  the  Reliable  Gentleman 
— by  an  African  who  felt  with  the  most  touching  pro 
priety  that  it  would  be  a  shame  for  any  correspondent  of 
TJie  Tribune  to  go  bareheaded  as  long  as  a  single  negro 
in  America  was  the  owner  of  a  hat !  It  was  a  white  wool 
relic  of  the  old-red-sandstone  period,  with  a  sugar-loaf 
crown,  and  a  broad  brim  drawn  down  closely  over  his 
ears,  like  the  bonnet  of  an  Esquimaux. 

His  boots  were  a  stupendous  refutation  of  the  report 
that  leather  was  scarce  among  the  Rebels.  I  understood 
it  to  be  no  figure  of  rhetoric,  but  the  result  of  actual 
and  exact  measurement,  which  induced  him  to  call  them 
the  "  Seven-Leaguers."  The  small  portion  of  his  body, 
which  was  visible  between  the  tops  of  his  boots  and  the 
bottom  of  his  hat,  was  robed  in  an  old  gray  quilt  of 
Secession  proclivities ;  and  taken  for  all  in  ally  with  his 


1865.]  STORIES  ABOUT  THE  WAR.  473 

pale,  nervous  face  and  his  remarkable  costume,  he 
looked  like  a  cross  between  the  Genius  of  Intellectuality 
and  a  Rebel  bushwhacker ! 

Before  daylight,  we  shiveringly  tapped  on  the  door  of 
a  house  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

"  Come  in,"  was  the  welcome  response. 

Entering,  we  found  a  woman  sitting  by  the  log  fire. 
Beginning  to  introduce  ourselves,  she  interrupted : 

"O,  I  know  all  about  you.  You  are  Yankee  prison 
ers.  Your  friends  who  passed  last  evening  told  us  you 
were  coming,  and  I  have  been  sitting  up  all  night  for 
you.  Come  to  the  fire  and  dry  your  clothes." 

For  two  hours  we  listened  to  her  tales  of  the  war. 
The  history  of  almost  every  Union  family  was  full  of 
romance.  Each  unstoried  mountain  stream  had  its  inci 
dents  of  daring,  of  sagacity,  and  of  faithfulness  ;  and 
almost  every  green  hill  had  been  bathed  in  that  scarlet 
dew  from  which  ever  springs  the  richest  and  the  ripest 
fruit. 

Concealment  here  was  difficult ;  so  we  were  taken  to 
the  house  of  a  neighbor,  who  also  was  waiting  to  wel 
come  us.  He  took  us  to  his  storehouse,  right  by  the 
road- side. 

"  The  Guard,"  said  he,  "searched  this  building  last 
Thursday,  unsuccessfully,  and  are  hardly  likely  to  try 
it  again  just  yet." 

Soon,  lying  near  a  fire  upon  a  warm  feather-bed,  we 
wooed  the  drowsy  god  with  all  the  success  which  the 
hungry  Salisbury  vermin,  sticking  closer  than  brothers, 
would  permit. 

XVI.     Monday,  January  2. 

Before  night  the  guide  returned  from  conducting 
Boothby's-  party,  and  assured  u&  that  the  coast  was 


474  CLIMBING  THE  BLUE  RIDGE. 

clear.  After  dark,  invigorated  Tby  tea  and  apple  brandy, 
we  followed  onr  pilot  by  devious  paths  up  the  steep, 
fir-clad,  piny  slope  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

The  view  from  the  summit  is  beautiful  and  impres 
sive  ;  but  for  our  weariness  and  anxiety,  we  should 
have  enjoyed  it  very  keenly. 

A  few  weeks  before,  the  Unionist  now  leading  us  had 
sent  his  little  daughter  of  twelve  years,  alone,  by  night, 
fifteen  miles  over  the  mountains,  to  warn  some  escaping 
Union  prisoners  that  the  Guard  had  gained  a  clue  to 
their  whereabouts.  They  received  the  warning  in  sea 
son  to  find  a  place  of  safety  before  their  pursuers  came. 

We  were  now  on  the  west  side  of  the  Ridge.  A 
heavy  rain  began  to  fall,  and,  though  soaked  and  weary, 
we  were  glad  to  have  our  tracks  obliterated,  and  thus  be 
insured  against  pursuit. 

"The  labor  we  delight  in  physics  pain;" 

but  in  this  case  the  effort  was  so  arduous  that  the  panacea 
was  not  very  effective.  Thomas  Starr  King  tells  the 
story  of  a  little  man,  who,  being  asked  his  weight,  re 
plied  : 

"Ordinarily,  a  hundred  and  twenty  pounds;  but 
when  I'm  mad,  I  weigh  a  ton !" 

I  think  any  one  of  our  wet,  blistered  feet,  which,  at 
every  step,  sunk  deep  into  the  slush,  would  have  coun 
terbalanced  his  whole  body  !  Like  millstones  we  dragged 
them  up  hill  after  hill,  and  through  the  long  valleys 
which  stretched  drearily  between.  Though  not  hunger 
ing  after  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  we  still  thought,  half 
regretfully,  of  our  squalid  Salisbury  quarters,  where  we 
had  at  least  a  roof  to  shelter  us,  and  a  bunk  of  straw. 
But  we  needed  no  injunction  to  remember  Lot's  wife; 
for  a  pillar  of  salt  would  have  represented  a  fabulous 


1865.]       CROSSING  THE  NEW  RIVER  AT  MIDNIGHT.        475 

sum  of  money  in  the  currency  of  the  Rebels ;  and  we 
had  no  desire  to  swell  their  scanty  revenues  or  supply 
their  impoverished  commissary  department. 

At  midnight  we  reached  New  River,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  yards  wide.  Our  guide  took  us  over,  one  at  a  time, 
behind  him  upon  his  horse.  We  were  probably  five 
hundred  miles  above  the  point  where  this  river,  as  the 
Great  Kanawha,  unites  with  the  Ohio ;  but  it  was  the 
first  stream  we  had  found  running  northward,  and  its 
soft,  rippling  song  of  home  and  freedom  was  very  sweet 
to  our  ears.  Already  our  Promised  Land  stretched  be 
fore  us,  and  the  shining  river  seemed  a  pathway  of  light 
to  its  hither  boundary.  Better  than  Abana  and  Pharpar, 
rivers  of  Damascus,  this  was  the  Jordan,  flowing  toward 
all  we  loved  and  longed  for.  It  revived  the  great  world 
of  work  and  of  life  which  had  faded  almost  to  fable. 

At  two  in  the  morning  we  reached  the  house  of  a 
stanch  Unionist,  which  nestled  romantically  in  the 
green  valley,  inclosed  on  all  sides  by  dark  mountains. 

Our  new  friend,  herculean  in  frame  and  with  a  heavy- 
tragedy  voice,  came  out  where  we  sat,  dripping  and 
dreary,  under  an  old  cotton-gin,  and  addressed  us  in  a 
pompous  strain,  worthy  of  Sergeant  Buzfuz  : 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  there  are,  unfortunately,  at 
my  house  to-night  two  wayfarers,  who  are  Rebels  and 
traitors.  If  they  knew  of  your  presence,  it  would  be 
my  inevitable  and  eternal  ruin.  Therefore,  unable  to 
extend  to  you  such  hospitalities  as  I  could  wish,  I  bid 
you  welcome  to  all  which  can  be  furnished  by  so  poor  a 
man  as  I.  I  will  place  you  in  my  barn,  which  is  warm, 
and  filled  with  fodder.  I  will  bring  you  food  and  apple 
brandy.  In  the  morning,  when  these  infernal  scoun 
drels  are  gone,  I  will  entertain  you  under  my  family 
roof.  Gentlemen,  I  have  been  a  Union  man  from  the 


476          HOSPITALITY  AND  ORATORY  COMBINED. 

"beginning,  and  I  shall  be  a  Union  man  to  the  end.  I 
had  three  sons ;  one  died  in  a  Kebel  hospital ;  one  was 
killed  at  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  fighting  (against 
his  will)  for  the  Southern  cause  ;  the  third,  thank  God  ! 
is  in  the  Union  lines." 

Here  the  father  overcame  the  orator;  and,  with  the 
conjunction  of  apple  brandy,  corn  bread,  and  quilts,  we 
were  soon  asleep  in  the  barn. 


1865.]       OVER  MOUNTAINS  AND  THROUGH  RAVINES.      477 


CHAPTER    XLV. 

No  tongue — all  eyes ;  be  silent — TEMPEST. 

AT  nine  in  the  morning  our  host  awakened  us. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  trust  you  have  slept  well.  The  enemy 
has  gone,  and  breakfast  waits.  I  call  you  early,  because 
I  want  to  take  you  out  of  North  Carolina  into  Tennessee, 
where  I  will  show  you  a  place  of  refuge  infinitely  safer 
than  this." 

For  the  first  time  since  leaving  Salisbury  we  traveled 
by  daylight.  Our  guide  led  us  deviously  through  fields, 
and  up  almost  perpendicular  ascents,  where  the  rarefied 
air  compelled  us  frequently  to  stop  for  breath. 

We  dragged  our  weary  feet  up  one  hill,  down  an 
other,  through  ravines  of  almost  impenetrable  laurels, 
swinging  across  the  streams  by  the  snowy,  pendent 
boughs,  only  to  find  another  appalling  hight  rising  be 
fore  us.  Nothing  but  the  hope  of  freedom  enabled  us  to 
keep  on  our  feet.  Once,  when  near  a  public  road,  our 
guide  suddenly  whispered . 

i '  Hist !     Drop  to  the  ground  instantly ! " 

Lying  behind  logs,  we  saw  two  or  three  horse-teams 
and  sleds  pass  by,  and  heard  the  conversation  of  the 
drivers. 

Our  pilot  was  not  agitated,  for,  like  all  the  Union  moun 
taineers,  danger  had  been  so  long  a  part  of  his  every-day 
existence,  that  he  had  no  physical  nervousness.  But  it 
was  reported  that  the  Guards  would  be  out  to-day,  so  he 
was  very  wary  and  vigilant.  We  crossed  the  road  in 


478          MISTAKEN  FOR  CONFEDERATE  GUARDS.          [ises. 

the  Indian  mode,  walking  in  single  file,  each  man  tread 
ing  in  the  footsteps  of  his  immediate  predecessor.  ISTo 
casual  observer  would  have  suspected  that  it  was  the 
track  of  more  than  one  man. 

At  4  r.  M.,  we  entered  Tennessee,  which,  like  the 
passage  of  the  ISTew  River,  seemed  another  long  stride 
toward  home.  Approaching  a  settlement,  we  went  far 
around  through  the  woods,  persuading  ourselves  that 
we  were  unobserved.  A  mile  beyond  we  reached  a 
small  log  house,  where  our  friend  was  known,  and  a 
blooming,  matronly  woman,  with  genial  eyes,  welcomed 
us. 

"  Come  in,  all.  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you.  I  thought 
you  must  be  Yankees  when  I  heard  of  your  approach, 
about  half  an  hour  ago." 

' '  How  did  you  hear  ? ' 

"A  good  many  young  men  are  lying  out  in  this  neigh 
borhood,  and  my  son  is  one  of  them.  He  has  not  slept 
in  the  house  for  two  years.  He  always  carries  his  rifle. 
At  first,  I  was  opposed  to  it,  but  now  I  am  glad  to  have 
him.  They  may  murder  him  any  day,  and  if  they  do,  I 
at  least  want  him  to  kill  some  of  the  traitors  first.  No 
body  can  approach  this  settlement,  day  or  night,  with 
out  being  seen  by  some  of  these  young  men,  always  on 
the  watch.  The  Guard  have  come  in  twice,  at  midnight, 
as  fast  as  they  could  ride  ;  but  the  news  traveled  before 
them,  and  they  found  the  birds  flown.  When  you  ap 
peared  in  sight,  the  boys  took  you  for  Rebels.  My  son 
and  two  others,  lying  behind  logs,  had  their  rifles  drawn 
on  you  not  more  than  three  hundred  yards  away.  They 
were  very  near  shooting  you,  when  they  discovered  that 
you  had  no  arms,  and  concluded  you  must  be  the  right 
sort  of  people.  In  the  distance  you  look  like  Home 
Guards — part  of  you  dressed  as  citizens,  one  in  Rebel 


1865.]  A  REBEL  GUERRILLA  KILLED.  479 

uniform,  and  two  wearing  Yankee  overcoats.  You  are 
unsafe  traveling  a  single  mile  through  this  region,  with 
out  sending  word  "beforehand  who  you  are." 

After  dark  we  were  shown  to  a  Ibarn,  where  we  wrap 
ped  ourselves  in  quilts.  During  the  last  twenty-four 
hours  we  had  journeyed  twenty-five  miles,  equal  to  fifty 
upon  level  roads,  and  our  eye-lids  were  very  heavy. 

XVIII.    Wednesday,  January  4. 

This  settlement  was  intensely  loyal,  and  admirably 
picketed  by  Union  women,  children,  and  bushwhackers. 
We  dined  with  the  wife  of  a  former  inmate  of  Castle 
Thunder.  She  told  us  that  Lafayette  Jones,  whose 
escape  from  that  prison  I  have  already  recorded,  re 
mained  in  the  Rebel  army  only  a  few  days,  deserting 
from  it  to  the  Union  lines,  and  then  coming  back  to  his 
Tennessee  home. 

The  Rebel  guerrilla  captain  who  originally  captured 
him  was  notoriously  cruel,  had  burned  houses,  murdered 
Union  men,  and  abused  helpless  women.  He  took  from 
Jones  two  hundred  dollars  in  gold,  promising  to  forward 
it  to  his  family,  but  never  did  so.  After  reaching  home, 
Jones  sent  a  message  to  him  that  he  must  refund  the 
money  at  once,  or  be  killed  wherever  found.  Jones  finally 
sought  hun.  As  they  met,  the  guerrilla  drew  a  revolver 
and  fired,  but  without  wounding  his  antagonist.  There 
upon  Jones  shot  him  dead  on  his  own  threshold.  The 
Union  people  justified  and  applauded  the  deed.  Jones 
was  afterward  captain  in  a  loyal  Tennessee  regiment. 
His  father  had  died  in  a  Richmond  dungeon,  one  of  his 
brothers  in  an  Alabama  prison,  and  a  second  had  been 
hung  by  the  Rebels. 

The  woman  told  us  that  another  guerrilla,  peculiarly 
obnoxious  to  the  Loyalists,  had  disappeared  early  in 


480          MEETING  A  FORMER  FELLOW-PRISONER. 

November.  A  few  days  before  we  arrived,  his  bones 
were  found  in  the  woods,  with  twenty-one  bullet-holes 
through  his  clothing.  His  watch  and  money  were  still 
undisturbed  in  his  pocket.  Vengeance,  not  avarice,  stim 
ulated  his  destroyers. 

Here  we  met  another  of  our  Castle  Thunder  fellow- 
prisoners,  named  Guy.  The  Richmond  authorities  knew 
he  was  a  Union  bushwhacker,  and  had  strong  evidence 
against  him,  which  would  have  cost  him  his  life  if 
brought  to  trial.  But  he,  too,  under  an  assumed  name, 
enlisted  in  the  Rebel  army,  deserted,  returned  to  Tennes 
see,  and  resumed  his  old  pursuit  as  a  hunter  of  men  with 
new  zeal  and  vigor. 

He  and  his  companion  were  now  armed  with  sixteen- 
shooter  rifles,  revolvers,  and  bowie-knives.  Guy' s  father 
and  brother  had  both  been  killed  by  the  guerrillas,  and 
he  was  bitter  and  unsparing.  If  he  ever  fell  into  Eebel 
hands  again,  his  life  was  not  worth  a  rush-light.  But  he 
was  merry  and  jocular  as  if  he  had  never  heard  of  the 
King  of  Terrors.  I  asked  him  how  he  now  regarded  his 
Richmond  adventures.  He  replied : 

"  I  would  not  take  a  thousand  dollars  in  gold  for  the 
experience  I  had  while  in  prison ;  but  I  would  not  endure 
it  again  for  ten  thousand." 

Guy  and  his  comrade  were  supposed  to  be  "lying 
out,"  which  suggested  silent  and  stealthy  movements; 
but  on  leaving  us  they  went  yelling,  singing,  and  scream 
ing  up  the  valley,  whooping  like  a  whole  tribe  of  Indians. 
Occasionally  they  fired  their  rifles,  as  if  their  vocal  organs 
were  not  noisy  enough.  It  was  ludicrously  strange  de 
portment  for  hunted  fugitives. 

"  Guy  always  goes  through  the  country  in  that  way," 
said  the  woman.  i '  He  is  very  reckless  and  fearless.  The 
Rebels  know  it,  and  give  him  a  wide  field.  He  has  killed 


18G5.]  ALARM  ABOUT  REBEL  CAVALRY.  481 

a  good  many  of  them,  first  and  last,  and  no  doubt  they 
will  murder  him,  sooner  or  later,  as  they  did  his  fa 
ther." 

At  night,  just  as  we  were  comfortably  asleep  in  the 
barn,  our  host  awakened  us,  saying  : 

"Five  Rebel  cavalry  are  reported  approaching  this 
neighborhood,  with  three  hundred  more  behind  them, 
coming  over  the  mountains  from  North  Carolina.  I  think 
it  is  true,  but  am  not  certain.  I  am  so  well  known  as  a 
Union  man,  that,  if  they  do  come,  they  will  search  my 
premises  thoroughly.  There  is  another  barn,  much  more 
secluded,  a  mile  farther  up  the  valley,  where  you  will  be 
safer  than  here,  and  will  compromise  nobody  if  discov 
ered.  If  they  arrive,  you  shall  be  informed  before  they 
can  reach  you." 

Coleridge  did  not  believe  in  ghosts,  because  he  had 
seen  too  many  of  them.  So  we  were  skeptical  concerning 
the  Rebel  cavalry,  having  heard  too  much  of  it.  But  we 
went  to  the  other  barn,  and  in  its  ample  straw-loft  found 
a  North  Carolina  refugee,  with  whom  we  slept  undis 
turbed.  He  deemed  this  place  much  safer  than  his  home 
—a  gratifying  indication  to  us  that  the  danger  was  grow 
ing  small  by  degrees. 

XIX.     Thursday,  January  5. 

This  morning,  -the  good  woman  whose  barn  had  shel 
tered  us  mended  our  tattered  clothing.      Her  husband 
was  a  soldier  in  the  Union  service.     I  asked  her  : 
"  How  do  you  live  and  support  your  family  ?" 
"  Yery  easily,"  she  replied.    "  Last  year,  I  did  all  my 
own  housework,  and  weaving,  spinning,  and  knitting, 
and  raised  over  a  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  with  no 
assistance  whatever  except  from  this  little  girl,  eleven 
years  old.     The  hogs  run  in  the  woods  during  the  sum- 

31 


482  A  STANCH  OLD  UNIONIST. 

mer,  feeding  themselves  ;  so  we  are  in  no  danger  of  star 
vation." 

Boothby'  s  company,  enhanced  by  the  two  Rebel  de 
serters  from  Petersburg,  and  a  young  conscript,  formerly 
one  of  our  prison-guards  at  Salisbury,  here  rejoined  us. 
Our  entire  party,  numbering  ten,  started  again  at  3  P.  M. 

The  road  was  over  Stony  Mountain,  very  rocky  and 
steep.  As  we  halted  wearily  upon  its  summit,  we  over 
looked  a  great  waste  of  mountains,  intersected  with  green 
valleys  of  pine  and  fir,  threaded  by  silver  streams.  Our 
guide  assured  us  that,  at  Carter's  Depot,  one  hundred 
and  ten  miles  east  of  Knoxville,  we  should  find  Union 
troops.  Soon  after  dark,  to  our  disappointment  and  in 
dignation,  he  declared  that  he  must  turn  back  without 
a  moment's  delay.  His  long-deferred  explanation  that 
the  young  wife,  whom  he  had  left  at  his  lonely  log 
house,  was  about  to  endure 

"The  pleasing  punishment  which  women  bear," 

mollified  our  wrath,  and  we  bade  him  good-by. 

After  dark  we  found  our  way,  deviously,  around 
several  dwellings,  to  the  house  of  an  old  Union  man. 
With  his  wife  and  three  bouncing  daughters,  he  heartily 
welcomed  us : 

"I  am  very  glad  to  see  you  ;  I  have  been  looking  for 
you  these  two  hours." 

"  Why  did  you  expect  us?" 

4 '  We  learned  yesterday  that  there  were  ten  Yankees, 
one  in  red  breeches  and  a  Rebel  uniform,  over  the 
mountain.  Girls,  make  a  fire  in  the  kitchen,  and  get 
supper  for  these  gentlemen  !" 

While  we  discussed  the  meal  and  a  great  bucket 
of  rosy  apples  before  the  roaring  fire,  our  host — silver- 
haired,  deep-chested,  brawny-limbed,  a  splendid  speci- 


1865.]  THE  MOST  DANGEROUS  POINT.  483 

men  of  physical  manhood — poured  out  his  heart.  He 
was  devoted  to  the  Union  with  a  zeal  passing  the  love  of 
women.  How  intensely  he  hated  the  Rebels  !  How  his 
eyes  flashed  and  dilated  as  he  talked  of  the  old  flag ! 
How  perfect  his  faith  that  he  should  live  to  see  it  again 
waving  triumphantly  on  his  native  mountains  !  One  of 
his  sons  had  died  fighting  for  his  country,  and  two  others 
were  still  in  the  Union  army. 

The  old  gentleman  piloted  us  through  the  deep 
woods,  for  three  miles,  to  a  friendly  house.  We  were 
now  near  a  rendezvous  of  Rebel  guerrillas,  reported  to 
be  without  conscience  and  without  mercy.  Their  settle 
ment  was  known  through  that  whole  region  as  "Little 
Richmond.''  We  must  pass  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
of  them.  It  was  feared  that  they  might  have  pickets  out, 
and  the  point  was  deemed  more  dangerous  than  any 
since  leaving  Salisbury. 

Our  new  friend,  though  an  invalid,  promptly  rose 
from  his  bed  to  guide  us  through  the  danger.  His  wife 
greeted  us  cordially,  but  was  extremely  apprehensive- 
darting  to  and  from  the  door,  and  in  conversation  sud 
denly  pausing  to  listen.  When  we  started,  she  said, 
taking  both  my  hands  in  hers  : 

* '  May  God  prosper  you,  and  carry  you  safely  through 
to  those  you  love.  But  you  must  be  very  cautious. 
Less  than  six  weeks  ago,  my  two  brothers  started  for  the 
North  by  the  same  route ;  and  when  they  reached  Crab 
Orchard,  the  Rebel  guerrillas  captured  them,  and  mur 
dered  them  in  cold  blood." 

After  leading  us  two  miles,  the  guide  stopped,  and 
when  all  came  up,  he  whispered : 

"We  are  approaching  the  worst  place.  Let  no  man 
speak  a  word.  Step  lightly  as  possible,  while  I  keep  as 
far  ahead  as  you  can  see  me.  If  you  hear  any  noise,  dart 


484  THE  ALL-DEVOURING  VERMIN. 

out  of  sight  at  once.  Should  I  be  discovered  with  you, 
it  would  be  certain  death  to  me.  If  found  alone,  I  can 
tell  some  story  about  sickness  in  my  family." 

We  crept  softly  behind  him  for  two  miles.  Then, 
leading  us  through  a  rocky  pasture  into  the  road,  he 
said  : 

"Thank  God!  I  have  brought  another  party  of  the 
right  sort  of  people  past  Little  Richmond  in  safety. 
My  health  is  broken,  and  I  shall  not  live  long ;  but  it  is  a 
great  consolation  to  know  that  I  have  been  able  to  help 
some  men  who  love  the  Union  made  by  our  fathers." 

Directing  us  to  a  stanch  Unionist,  a  few  miles  be 
yond,  he  returned  home. 

At  three  in  the  morning,  we  reached  our  destination. 
Davis  and  Boothby  did  pioneer  duty,  going  forward  to 
the  house,  where  they  were  received  by  a  clamor  of 
dogs,  which  made  the  valleys  ring.  After  a  whispered 
conference  with  the  host,  they  returned  and  said  : 

"There  is  a  Rebel  traveler  spending  the  night  here. 
We  are  to  stay  in  the  barn  until  morning,  when  he  will 
be  gone." 

We  burrowed  in  the  warm  hay-mow,  and  vainly  es 
sayed  to  sleep.  The  all-devouring  vermin  by  this  time 
swarmed  upon  us,  poisoning  our  blood  and  stimulating 
every  nerve,  as  we  tossed  wearily  until  long  after  day 
light. 

XX.  Friday,  January  6. 

At  nine  o'clock  this  morning  our  host  came  to  the 
hay -loft  and  awoke  us  : 

"  My  troublesome  guest  is  gone  ;  walk  down  to  break 
fast," 

He  was  educated,  intelligent,  and  had  been  a  leader 
among  the  "Conservative"  or  Union  people,  until  com- 


1865.]  MORE  UNION  SOLDIERS.  485 

pelled  to  acquiesce,  nominally,  in  the  war.  His  house 
and  family  were  pleasant.  But  while  we  now  began  to 
approach  civilization,  the  Union  lines  steadily  receded. 
He  informed  us  that  we  would  find  no  loyal  troops  east 
of  Jonesboro,  ninety-eight  miles  from  Knoxville,  and 
probably  none  east  of  Greenville,  seventy-four  miles 
from  Knoxville. 

"But,"  said  he,  "you  are  out  of  the  woods  for  the 
present.  You  are  on  the  border  of  the  largest  Union 
settlement  in  all  the  Rebel  States.  You  may  walk 
for  twenty-four  miles  by  daylight  on  the  public  road. 
Look  out  for  strangers,  %Home  Guards,  or  Rebel  giier- 
rillas ;  but  you  will  find  every  man,  woman,  and  child, 
who  lives  along  the  route,  a  stanch  and  faithful 
friend." 

With  light  hearts  we  started  down  the  valley.  It 
seemed  strange  to  travel  the  public  road  by  daylight, 
visit  houses  openly,  and  look  people  in  the  face. 

Our  way  was  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Watauga,  a 
broad,  flashing  stream,  walled  in  by  abrupt  cliff's,  cov 
ered  with  pines  and  hemlocks.  A  woman  on  horseback, 
with  her  little  son  on  foot,  accompanied  us  for  several 
miles,  saying  : 

"  If  you  travel  alone,  you  are  in  danger  of  being  shot 
for  Rebel  guerrillas." 

In  the  evening  a  Union  man  rowed  us  across  the 
stream.  On  the  left  bank  our  eyes  were  gladdened  by 
three  of  our  boys  in  blue — United  States  soldiers  at  home 
on  furlough.  Seeing  us  in  the  distance,  they  leveled 
their  rifles,  but  soon  discovered  that  we  were  not  foes. 

Our  host  for  the  night  beguiled  the  evening  hours 
with  stories  of  the  war  ;  and  again  we  enjoyed  the  lux 
ury  of  beds. 


486  A  WELL-FORTIFIED  REFUGE.  [ises. 

XXI.  Saturday,  January  7. 

A  friend  piloted  us  eight  miles  over  the  rough,  snowy 
mountains,  avoiding  public  roads.  In  the  afternoon,  we 
found  shelter  at  a  white  frame  house,  nestling  among  the 
mountains,  and  fronted  by  a  natural  lawn,  dotted  with  firs. 

Here,  for  the  first  time,  we  were  entirely  safe.  Any 
possible  Rebel  raid  must  come  from  the  south  side  of  the 
river.  The  house  was  on  the  north  bank  of  the  stream, 
which  was  too  much  swollen  for  fording,  and  the  only 
canoe  within  five  miles  was  fastened  on  our  shore.  Thus 
fortified  on  front,  flank,  and  rear,  we  took  our  ease  in  the 
pleasant,  home-like  farmhouse., 

Near  the  dwelling  was  a  great  spring,  of  rare  beauty. 
Within  an  area  of  twelve  feet,  a  dozen  streams,  larger 
than  one's  arm,  came  gushing  and  boiling  up  through 
snow-white  sand.  By  the  aid  of  a  great  fire,  and  an 
enormous  iron  kettle,  we  boiled  all  our  clothing,  and  at 
last  vanquished  the  troublesome  enemies  which,  brought 
from  the  prison,  had  so  long  disturbed  our  peace. 

Then,  bathing  in  the  icy  waters,  we  came  out  re 
newed,  like  the  Syrian  leper,  and,  in  soft,  clean  beds, 
enjoyed  the  sweet  sleep  of  childhood. 

XXII.  Sunday,  January  8. 

A  new  guide  took  us  eight  miles  to  a  log  barn  in  the 
woods.  After  dining  among,  but  not  upon,  the  husks, 
we  started  again,  an  old  lady  of  sixty  guiding  us  through 
the  woods  toward  her  house.  Age  had  not  withered 
her,  nor  custom  staled,  for  she  walked  at  a  pace  which 
made  it  difficult  to  keep  in  sight  of  her. 

At  dark,  in  the  deep  pines,  behind  her  lonely  dwell 
ing,  we  kindled  a  fire,  supped,  and,  with  fifteen  or  twenty 
companions,  who  had  joined  us  so  noiselessly  that  they 
seemed  to  spring  from  earth,  we  started  on. 


1865]  DAN  ELLIS,  THE  UNION  GUIDE.  487 


CHAPTER    XLVI. 

If  I  have  wit  enough  to  get  out  of  this  wood,  I  have  enough  to  serve  mine  own  turn. 

— MIDSUMMER  NIGHT'S  DBKAM. 

FOR  many  months  before  leaving  prison,  we  had  been 
familiar  with  the  name  of  DAN  ELLIS — a  famous  Union 
guide,  who,  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  had  done 
nothing  but  conduct  loyal  men  to  our  lines. 

Ellis  is  a  hero,  and  his  life  a  romance.  He  had  taken 
through,  in  all,  more  than  four  thousand  persons.  He 
had  probably  seen  more  adventure — in  lights  and  races 
with  the  Rebels,  in  long  journeys,  sometimes  bare-footed 
and  through  the  snow,  or  swimming  rivers  full  of  float 
ing  ice — than  any  other  person  living. 

He  never  lost  but  one  man,  who  was  swooped  up 
through  his  own  heedlessness.  The  party  had  traveled 
eight  or  ten  days,  living  upon  nothing  but  parched  corn. 
Dan  insisted  that  a  man  could  walk  twenty-five  miles  a 
day  through  snow  upon  parched  corn  just  as  well  as 
upon  any  other  diet — if  he  only  thought  so.  I  feel  bound 
to  say  that  I  have  tried  it  and  do  not  think  so.  This 
person  held  the  same  opinion.  He  revolted  against  the 
parched-corn  diet,  vowing  that  he  would  go  to  the  first 
house  and  get  an  honest  meal,  if  he  was  captured  for  it 
He  went  to  the  first  house,  obtained  the  meal,  and  was 
captured. 

After  we  had  traveled  fifty  miles,  everybody  said  to 
us,  "If  you  can  only  find  Dan  Ellis,  and  do  just  as  he 
tells  you,  you  will  be  certain  to  get  through." 

We  did  find  Dan  Ellis.     On  this  Sunday  night,  one 


488  IN  GOOD  HANDS  AT  LAST.  [isea 

hundred  and  thirty-four  miles  from  onr  lines,  greatly 
broken  down,  we  reached  a  point  on  the  road,  waited 
for  two  hours,  when  along  came  Dan  Ellis,  with  a  party 
of  seventy  men — refugees,  Rebel  deserters,  Union  sol 
diers  returning  from  their  homes  within  the  enemy's 
lines,  and  escaping  prisoners.  About  thirty  of  them 
were  mounted  and  twenty  armed. 

Like  most  men  of  action,  Dan  was  a  man  of  few 
words.  When  our  story  had  been  told  him,  he  said  to 
his  comrades : 

"Boys,  here  are  some  gentlemen  who  have  escaped 
from  Salisbury,  and  are  almost  dead  from  the  journey. 
They  are  our  people.  They  have  suffered  in  our  Cause. 
They  are  going  to  their  homes  in  our  lines.  We  can't 
ride  and  let  these  men  walk.  Get  down  off  your  horses, 
and  help  them  up." 

Down  they  came,  and  up  we  went ;  and  then  we 
pressed  along  at  a  terrible  pace. 

In  low  conversation,  as  we  rode  through  the  darkness, 
I  learned  from  Dan  and  his  companions  something  of  his 
strange,  eventful  history.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  he 
was  a  mechanic  in  East  Tennessee.  After  once  going 
through  the  mountains  to  the  Union  lines,  he  displayed 
rare  capacity  for  woodcraft,  and  such  vigilance,  energy, 
and  wisdom,  that  he  fell  naturally  into  the  pursuit  of  a 
pilot. 

Six  or  eight  of  his  men,  who  had  been  with  him  from 
the  beginning,  were  almost  equally  familiar  with  the 
routes.  They  lived  near  him,  in  Carter  County,  Ten 
nessee,  in  open  defiance  of  the  Rebels.  When  at  home, 
they  usually  slept  in  the  woods,  and  never  parted  from 
their  arms  for  a  single  moment. 

As  the  Rebels  would  show  them  no  mercy,  they  could 
not  afford  to  be  captured.  For  three  years  there  had 


DAN.  ELLIS. 


18G5.]       AN  UNEQUAL  BATTLE — ELLIS'S  BRAVERY.       489 

"been  a  standing  offer  of  five  thousand  dollars  for  Dan 
Ellis' s  head.  During  that  period,  except  when  within 
our  lines,  he  had  never  permitted  his  Henry  rifle,  which, 
would  fire  sixteen  times  without  reloading,  to  go  beyond 
the  reach  of  his  hand. 

Once,  when  none  of  his  comrades,  except  Lieutenant 
Treadaway,  were  with  him,  fourteen  of  the  Rebels  came 
suddenly  upon  them.  Ellis  and  Treadaway  dropped  be 
hind  logs  and  began  to  fire  their  rifles.  As  the  enemy 
pressed  them,  they  fell  slowly  back  into  a  forest,  con 
tinuing  to  shoot  from  behind  trees.  The  unequal  skir 
mish  lasted  three  hours.  Several  Rebels  were  wounded, 
and  at  last  they  retreated,  leaving  the  two  determined 
Unionists  unharmed  and  masters  of  the  field. 

Dan  usually  made  the  trip  to  our  lines  once  in  three 
or  four  weeks,  leading  through  from  forty  to  five  hun 
dred  persons.  Before  starting,  he  and  his  comrades 
would  make  a  raid  upon  the  Rebels  in  some  neigh 
boring  county,  take  from  them  all  the  good  horses  they 
could  find,  and,  after  reaching  Knoxville,  sell  them  to  the 
United  States  quartermaster. 

Thus  they  obtained  a  livelihood,  though  nothing 
more.  The  refugees  and  escaping  prisoners  were  usual 
ly  penniless,  and  Ellis,  whose  sympathies  flowed  toward 
all  loyal  men  like  water,  was  compelled  to  feed  them 
during  the  entire  journey.  He  always  remunerated 
Union  citizens  for  provisions  purchased  from  them. 

To-night  was  so  cold,  that  our  sore,  lame  joints  would 
hardly  support  us  upon  our  horses.  Dan' s  rapid  march 
ing  was  the  chief  secret  of  his  success.  He  seemed  deter 
mined  to  keep  at  least  one  day  ahead  of  all  Rebel 
pursuers. 

Now  that  we  were  safe  in  his  hands,  I  accompanied 
the  party  mechanically,  with  no  further  questions  or 


490  LOST! — A  PERILOUS  BLUNDER.  [ises. 

anxiety  about  routes ;  but  I  chanced  to  hear  Treadaway 
ask  him : 

"  Don't  you  suppose  the  Nolechucky  is  too  high  for 
us  to  ford?" 

"  Yery  likely,"  replied  Dan  ;  "  we  will  stop  and  in 
quire  of  Barnet." 

Upon  the  mule  which  I  rode,  a  sack  of  corn  served 
for  a  saddle.  I  was  not  accomplished  in  the  peculiar 
gymnastics  required  to  sit  easily  upon  it  and  keep  it  in 
place. 

Thirsty  and  feverish,  I  stopped  at  the  crossing  of  Rock 
Creek  for  a  draught  of  water  and  to  adjust  the  corn- 
sack.  Attempting  to  remount,  I  was  as  stiff  and  awk 
ward  as  an  octogenarian,  and  my  restive  mule  would  not 
stand  for  a  moment.  I  finally  succeeded  in  climbing  upon 
his  back  two  or  three  minutes  after  the  last  horseman 
disappeared  up  the  bank. 

We  had  been  traveling  across  forests,  over  hills, 
through  swamps,  without  regard  to  thoroughfares  ;  but 
I  rode  carelessly  on,  supposing  that  my  mule's  instinct 
would  keep  him  on  the  fresh  scent  of  the  cavalcade. 
When  we  had  jogged  along  for  ten  minutes,  awakening 
from  a  little  reverie,  I  listened  vainly  to  hear  the  foot 
falls  of  the  horses.  All  was  silent.  I  dismounted,  and 
examined  the  half-frozen  road,  but  no  hoof-marks  could 
be  seen  upon  it. 

I  was  lost !  It  might  mean  recapture — it  might  mean 
reimprisonment  and  death,  for  the  terms  were  nearly 
synonymous.  I  was  ignorant  about  the  roads,  and 
whether  I  was  in  a  Union  or  Rebel  settlement. 

To  search  for  that  noiseless,  stealthy  party  would  be 
useless  ;  so  I  rode  back  to  the  creek,  tied  my  mule  to  a 
laurel  in  the  dense  thicket,  and  sat  down  upon  a  log, 
pondering  on  my  stupid  heedlessness,  which  seemed 


1865.]  A  MOST  FORTUNATE  ENCOUNTER.  491 

likely  to  meet  its  just  reward.  I  remembered  that  Davis 
owed  his  original  capture  to  a  mule,  and  wondered  if 
the  same  cause  was  about  to  produce  for  me  a  like 
result. 

Mentally  anathematizing  my  long-eared  brute,  I  gave  ^ 
him  a  part  of  the  corn,  and  threw  myself  down  behind  a 
log,  directly  beside  the  road.     This  would  enable  me  to 
hear  the  horse' s  feet  of  any  one  who  might  return  for  me. 
In  a  few  minutes  I  was  sound  asleep. 

When  awakened  by  the  cold,  my  watch  told  me  that 
it  was  three  o'  clock.  Running  to  and  fro  in  the  thicket 
until  my  blood  was  warmed,  I  resumed  my  position 
behind  the  log,  and  slept  until  daylight  was  gleaming 
through  the  forest. 

Walking  back  to  the  creek,  I  reconnoitered  a  log 
dwelling,  so  small  and  humble  that  its  occupant  was 
probably  loyal.  In  a  few  minutes,  through  the  early 
dawn,  an  old  man,  with  a  sack  of  corn  upon  his  shoulder, 
came  out  of  the  house.  He  evinced  no  surprise  at  seeing 
me.  Looking  earnestly  into  his  eyes,  I  asked  him  : 

"Are  you  a  Union  man  or  a  Secessionist?"  He 
replied : 

' '  I  don' t  know  who  you  are  ;  but  I  am  a  Union  man, 
and  always  have  been." 

"  I  am  a  stranger  and  in  trouble.  I  charge  you  to 
tell  me  the  truth." 

"  I  do  tell  you  the  truth,  and  I  have  two  sons  in  the 
United  States  army." 

His  manner  appeared  sincere,  and  he  carried  a  letter  of 
recommendation  in  his  open,  honest  face.  I  told  him  my 
awkward  predicament.  He  reassured  me  at  once. 

"  I  know  Dan  Ellis  as  well  as  my  own  brother.  No 
truer  man  ever  lived.  What  route  was  he  going  to 
take«" 


492  REJOINING  DAN  AND  HIS  PARTY.  [ises. 

"  I  heard  liim  say  something  about  Barnet' s." 

"  That  is  a  ford  only  five  miles  from  here.  Barnet  is 
one  of  the  right  sort  of  people.  This  road  will  take  you 
to  his  house.  Good- by,  my  friend,  and  don't  get  separ 
ated  from  your  party  again." 

I  certainly  did  not  need  the  last  injunction.  Reach 
ing  the  ford,  Barnet  told  me  that  our  party  had  spent 
several  hours  in  crossing,  and  was  encamped  three  miles 
ahead.  He  took  me  over  the  river  in  his  canoe,  my  mule 
swimming  behind.  Half  a  mile  down  the  road,  I  met 
Ellis  and  Treadaway. 

uAh  ha!"  said  Dan,  "  we  were  looking  for  you.  I 
told  the  boys  not  to  be  uneasy.  There  are  men  in  our 
crowd  who  would  have  blundered  upon  some  Rebel, 
told  all  about  us,  and  so  alarmed  the  country  and 
brought  out  the  Home  Guards ;  but  I  knew  you  were 
discreet  enough  to  take  care  of  yourself,  and  not  en 
danger  us.  Let  us  breakfast  at  this  Union  house." 

XXIII.     Monday,  January  9. 

"To-day,"  said  Dan  Ellis,  "we  must  cross  the  Big 
Butte  of  Rich  Mountain." 

"How  far  is  it?"  I  asked. 

"It  is  generally  called  ten  miles  ;  but  I  suspect  it 
is  about  fifteen,  and  a  rather  hard  road  at  that." 

About  fifteen,  and  a  rather  hard  road !  It  seemed 
fifty,  and  a  very  Via  Dolorosa. 

We  started  at  11  A.  M.  For  three  miles  we  followed 
a  winding  creek,  the  horsemen  on  a  slow  trot,  crossing 
the  stream  a  dozen  times ;  the  footmen  keeping  up  as 
best  they  could,  and  shivering  from  their  frequent  baths 
in  the  icy  waters. 

We  turned  up  the  sharp  side  of  a  snowy  mountain. 
For  hours  and  hours  we  toiled  along,  up  one  rocky, 


1865.]  A  TERRIBLE  MOUNTAIN  MARCH.  493 

\ 

pine-covered  hill,  down  a  little  declivity,  then  up  an 
other  hill,  then  down  again,  but  constantly  gaining  in 
hight.  The  snow  was  ten  inches  deep.  Dan  averred  he 
had  never  crossed  the  mountain  when  the  travel  was 
so  hard  ;  but  he  pushed  on,  as  if  death  were  behind 
and  heaven  before. 

The  rarity  of  the  air  at  that  elevation  increased  my 
pneumonic  difficulty,  and  rendered  my  breath  very 
short.  Ellis  furnished  me  with  a  horse  the  greater  part 
of  the  way ;  but  the  hills,  too  steep  for  riding,  com 
pelled  us  to  climb,  our  poor  animals  following  behind. 
The  pithy  proverb,  that  "it  is  easy  to  walk  when  one 
leads  a  horse  by  the  bridle,"  was  hardly  true  in  my 
case,  for  it  seemed  a  hundred  times  to-day  as  if  I 
could  not  possibly  take  another  step,  but  must  fall 
out  by  the  roadside,  and  let  the  company  go  on.  But 
after  my  impressive  lesson  of  last  night,  I  was  hardly 
likely  to  halt  so  long  as  any  locomotive  power  re 
mained. 

Our  men  and  animals,  in  single  file,  extended  for 
more  than  a  mile  in  a  weary,  tortuous  procession,  which 
dragged  its  slow  length  along.  After  hours  which 
appeared  interminable,  and  efforts  which  seemed  impos 
sible,  we  halted  upon  a  high  ridge,  brushed  the  snow 
from  the  rocks,  and  sat  down  to  a  cold  lunch,  beside 
a  clear,  bright  spring  which  gushed  vigorously  from  the 
ground.  I  ventured  to  ask : 

"  Are  we  near  the  top  ?" 

"About  half  way  up,"  was  Dan's  discouraging 
reply. 

"Come,  come,  boys;  we  must  pull  out!"  urged 
Davis ;  and,  following  that  irrepressible  invalid,  we 
moved  forward  again. 

As  we   climbed    hill  after   hill,   thinking   we  had 


494          A  STORM  INCREASES  THE  DISCOMFORTS.        [1865. 

nearly  readied  the  summit,  beyond  us  would  still  rise 
another  mountain  a  little  higher  than  the  one  we  stood 
upon.  They  seemed  to  stretch  out  to  the  crack  of 
doom. 

To  increase  the  discomfort,  a  violent  rain  came  on.  The 
very  memory  of  this  day  is  wearisome.  I  pause,  thank 
ful  to  end  only  a  chapter,  in  the  midst  of  an  experience 
which,  judged  by  my  own  feelings,  appeared  likely  to 
end  life  itself. 


1865.]  FORDING  CHEEKS  IN  THE  DARKNESS.  495 


CHAPTER    XLVII. 

It  hath  been  the  longest  night 

That  e'er  I  watched,  and  the  most  heaviest. 

Two  GENTLEMEN  OF  VKKONJU 


-But  for-this  miracle— 


I  mean  our  preservation — few  in  millions 
Can  speak  like  us. 

TKMPEST. 

As  I  toiled,  staggering,  up  each,  successive  Mil,  it 
seemed  that  this  terrible  climbing  and  this  torturing  day 
would  never  end.  But  Necessity  and  Hope  work 
miracles,  and  strength  proved  equal  to  the  hour. 

At  4  P.  M.  the  clouds  broke,  the  sun  burst  out,  as 
we  stood  on  the  icy  summit,  revealing  a  grand  view  of 
mountains,  valleys,  and  streams  on  every  side. 

After  a  brief  halt,  we  began  the  descent.  Our  path, 
trodden  only  by  refugees  and  prisoners,  led  by  Dan 
Ellis,  had  been  worn  so  deep  by  the  water,  that,  in  many 
places,  our  bodies  were  half  concealed !  How  Dan 
rushed  down  those  steep  declivities  !  It  was  easy  to  fol 
low  now,  and  I  kept  close  behind  him. 

Twilight,  dusk,  darkness,  came  on,  and  again  the  rain 
began  to  pour  down.  We  could  not  see  each  other  five 
yards  away.  We  pressed  steadily  on.  We  reached  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  and  were  in  a  dark,  pine- shadowed, 
winding  road,  which  frequently  crossed  a  swollen,  foam 
ing  creek.  At  first  Dan  hunted  for  logs ;  but  the  darkness 
made  this  slow  work.  He  finally  abandoned  it,  and, 
whenever  we  came  to  a  stream,  plunged  in  up  to  the 
middle,  dashed  through,  and  rushed  on,  with  dripping 
garments.  Our  cavalcade  and  procession  must  have 
stretched  back  fully  three  miles  ;  but  every  man  endea- 


496  PROSPECT  OF  A  DREARY  NIGHT.  [ises. 

vored  to  keep  within  shouting  distance  of  his  immediate 
predecessor. 

"  We  shall  camp  to-night,"  said  Dan,  "at  a  lonely 
house  two  miles  from  the  foot  of  the  mountain." 

Eeaching  the  place,  we  found  that,  since  his  last 
journey,  this  dwelling  had  tumbled  down,  and  nothing 
was  left  but  a  labyrinth  of  timbers  and  boards.  We 
laboriously  propped  up  a  section  of  the  roof.  It  proved 
a  little  protection  from  the  dripping  rain,  and,  while  the 
rest  of  the  party  slowly  straggled  in,  Treadaway  went  to 
the  nearest  Union  house,  to  learn  the  condition  of  the 
country.  In  fifteen  minutes  we  heard  the  tramp  of  his 
returning  horse,  and  could  see  a  fire-brand  glimmering 
through  the  darkness, 

"  Something  wrong  here,"  said  Dan.  "  There  must 
be  danger,  or  he  would  not  bring  fire,  expecting  us  to 
stay  out  of  doors  such  a  night  as  this.  What  is  the 
news,  Treadaway  ?' ' 

4 '  Bad  enough, ' '  replied  the  lieutenant,  dismounting 
from  his  dripping  horse,  carefully  nursing,  between  two 
pieces  of  board,  the  glowing  firebrand.  "  The  Rebel 
guerrillas  are  thick  and  vigilant.  A  party  of  them  passed 
here  only  this  evening.  I  tell  you,  Dan  Ellis,  we  have 
got  to  keep  a  sharp  eye  out,  if  we  don't  want  to  be 
picked  up." 

All  who  could  find  room  huddled  under  the  poorly 
propped  roof,  which  threatened  to  fall  and  crush  them. 
Dan  and  his  immediate  comrades,  with  great  readiness, 
improvised  a  little  camp  for  themselves,  so  thatching  it 
with  boards  and  shingles  that  it  kept  the  water  off  their 
heads.  They  were  soon  asleep,  grasping  their  inseparable 
rifles  and  near  their  horses,  from  which  they  never  per 
mitted  themselves  to  be  far  away. 

With  my  two    journalistic   friends,   I  deemed  rest 


THE  "NAMELESS  HEROINE." 


1865.]  SLEEPING  AMONG  THE  HUSKS.  497 

nearly  as  important  as  safety,  for  we  needed  to  accumu 
late  strength.  We  found  our  way  through  the  darkness 
to  the  nearest  Union  house.  There  was  a  great  fire 
"blazing  on  the  hearth ;  but  the  little  room  was  crowded 
with  our  weary  and  soaking  companions,  who  had  anti 
cipated  us. 

We  crossed  the  creek  to  another  dwelling,  where 
the  occupant,  a  life-long  invalid,  was  intensely  loyal. 
With  his  wife  and  little  son,  he  greeted  us  very  warm 
ly,  adding : 

"  I  wish  I  could  keep  you  in  my  house  ;  but  it  would 
not  be  safe.  We  will  give  you  quilts,  and  you  may 
sleep  among  the  husks  in  the  barn,  where  you  will  be 
warm  and  dry.  If  the  Guards  come  during  the  night, 
they  will  be  likely  to  search  the  house  first,  and  the  boy 
or  the  woman  can  probably  give  you  warning.  But,  if 
they  do  find  you,  of  course  you  will  tell  them  that  we 
are  not  privy  to  your  concealment,  because,  you  know, 
it  would  be  a  matter  of  life  and  death  for  me." 

We  found  the  husks  dry  and  fragrant,  and  soon  for 
got  our  weariness. 

XXIV.     Tuesday,  January  10. 

Breakfasting  before  daylight,  that  we  might  not  be 
seen  leaving  the  house,  we  sought  our  rendezvous.  Those 
who  had  remained  in  camp  were  a  wet,  cold,  sorry-look 
ing  party. 

By  nine  o'clock,  several,  who  had  been  among  the 
Union  people  in  the  neighborhood,  returned,  and  held  a 
consultation.  The  accounts  of  all  agreed  that,  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  ahead,  the  danger  was  great,  and  the 
country  exceedingly  difficult  to  pass  through.  More 
over,  the  Union  forces  still  appeared  to  recede  as  we 
approached  the  places  where  they  were  reputed  to  be. 
We  were  now  certain  that  there  were  none  at  Jonesboro, 

32 


498  TURNING  BACK  IN  DISCOURAGEMENT. 

none  at  Greenville,  probably  none  east  of  Strawberry 
Plains. 

Eight  or  ten  of  our  party  determined  to  turn  back. 
Among  them  were  three  Union  soldiers,  who  had  seen 
service  and  peril.  But  they  said  to  us,  as  they  turned 
to  retrace  their  steps  over  Rich  Mountain : 

"It  is  useless  to  go  on.  The  party  will  never  get 
through  in  the  world.  Not  a  single  man  of  it  will  reach 
Knoxville,  unless  he  waits  till  the  road  is  clear." 

Ellis  and  Treadaway  listened  to  them  with  a  quiet 
smile.  The  perils  ahead  did  not  disturb  our  serenity, 
because  they  were  so  much  lighter  than  the  perils  be 
hind.  We  had  left  horrors  to  which  all  future  possi 
bilities  were  a  mercy.  We  had  looked  in  at  the  win 
dows  of  Death,  and  stood  upon  the  verge  of  the  Life  To 
Be.  We  doubted  not  that  the  difficulties  were  greatly 
magnified,  and  all  dangers  looked  infinitesimal,  along 
the  path  leading  toward  home  and  freedom. 

Among  those  who  went  back  was  a  North  Carolina 
citizen,  accompanied  by  a  little  son,  the  child  of  his 
old  age.  Reluctant  to  trust  himself  again  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  Rebels,  lie  was  unaccustomed  to  the  war 
path,  and  decided  to  return  to  the  ills  he  had,  rather 
than  fly  to  others  which  he  knew  not  of.  Purchasing 
one  of  his  horses,  I  was  no  longer  dependent  upon  the 
kindness  of  Ellis  and  his  comrades  for  a  steed. 

Before  noon  we  started,  following  secluded  valley 
paths.  The  rain  ceased  and  the  day  was  pleasant.  At 
a  Union  dwelling  we  came  upon  the  hot  track  of  eight 
guerrillas,  who  had  been  there  only  an  hour  before.  The 
Rebel-hunting  instinct  waxed  strong  within  Dan,  and, 
taking  eight  of  his  own  men,  he  started  in  fierce  pursuit, 
leaving  Treadaway  in  charge  of  the  company. 

Before  dark  we  reached  Kelly' s  Gap,  camping  in  an 


1865.]  A  HEBEL  PRISONER  BROUGHT  IN.  499 

old  orchard,  "beside  a  large  farm-house  with  many  ample 
out-buildings.  The  place  was  now  deserted.  One  of 
our  guides  explained : 

"  A  Union  man  lived  here,  and  he  was  hanged  last 
year  upon  that  apple-tree.  They  cut  him  down,  how 
ever,  "before  he  died,  and  he  fled  from  the  country. " 

Tying  our  horses  to  the  trees,  we  parched  corn  for 
supper.  Fires  were  kindled  in  the  buildings,  giving  the 
place  a  genial  appearance  as  night  closed  in. 

After  dark,  Dan  and  his  comrades  returned.  The 
whole  party  of  guerrillas  had  very  narrowly  escaped  them. 
They  captured  one,  and  brought  him  in  a  prisoner.  One 
of  the  out-buildings  was  cleared,  and  he  was  placed  in  it, 
under  two  volunteer  guards  armed  with  rifles.  He  was 
not  more  than  twenty-two  years  old,  and  had  a  heavy, 
stolid  face.  He  steadily  denied  that  he  was  a  guerrilla, 
asserting  that  he  had  been  in  the  Rebel  army,  had 
deserted  from  it,  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
United  States  while  at  Knoxville,  and  was  now  trying  to 
live  quietly. 

Some  of  Ellis' s  men  believed  that  he  had  broken 
his  oath  of  allegiance,  and  was  the  most  obnoxious  of 
the  guerrillas.  In  his  presence  they  discussed  freely  the 
manner  of  disposing  of  him.  Some  advocated  taking 
him  to  Knoxville,  and  turning  him  over  to  the  authori 
ties.  Others,  who  seemed  to  be  a  majority,  urged  taking 
him  out  into  the  orchard  and  shooting  him.  This  coun 
sel  seemed  likely  to  prevail.  Several  of  the  men  who 
gave  it  had  seen  brothers  or  fathers  murdered  by  the 
Rebels. 

The  prisoner  had  little  intelligence,  and  talked  only 
when  addressed.  I  could  but  admire  the  external  stolid 
ity  with  which  he  listened  to  these  discussions.  One  of 
his  judges  and  would-be  executioners  asked  him  : 


500  AN  ALARM  AT  MIDNIGHT.  [1865. 

"  Well,  sir,  what  have  you  to  say  for  yourself?" 

"  I  am  in  your  hands,"  he  replied,  without  moving  a 
muscle ;  "  you  can  kill  me  if  you  want  to  ;  but  I  have 
kept  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  I  am  innocent  of  the 
charges  you  bring  against  me." 

After  some  further  debate,  a  Union  officer  from  East 
Tennessee  said . 

"He  may  deserve  death,  and  he  probably  does.  But 
we  are  not  murderers,  and  he  shall  not  be  shot.  I  will 
use  my  own  revolver  on  anybody  who  attempts  it.  Let 
us  hear  no  more  of  these  taunts.  No  brave  man  will 
insult  a  prisoner." 

It  was  at  last  decided  to  take  him  to  Knoxville.  He 
bore  this  decision  with  the  same  silence  he  had  mani 
fested  at  the  prospect  of  death. 

During  this  scene  Dan  was  absent.  He  had  gone  to 
the  nearest  Union  house  to  learn  the  news,  for  every 
loyal  family  in  a  range  of  many  hundred  miles  knew  and 
loved  him.  We,  very  weary,  lay  down  to  sleep  in  an 
old  orchard,  with  our  saddles  for  pillows.  Our  reflec 
tions  were  pleasant.  We  were  only  seventy-nine  miles 
from  the  Union  lines.  We  progressed  swimmingly,  and 
had  even  begun  to  regulate  the  domestic  affairs  of  the 
border ! 

Before  midnight  some  one  shook  my  arm.  I  rub 
bed  my  eyes  open  and  looked  up.  There  was  Dan 
Ellis. 

"  Boys,  we  must  saddle  instantly.  We  have  walked 
right  into  a  nest  of  Rebels.  Several  hundred  are  within 
a  few  miles  ;  eighty  are  in  this  immediate  vicinity.  They 
are  lying  in  ambush  for  Colonel  Kirk  and  his  men.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  we  can  ever  get  out  of  this.  We  must 
divide  into  two  parties.  The  footmen  must  take  to  the 
mountains ;  we  who  are  riding,  and  in  much  greater 


1865.]  A  YOUNG  LADY  FOR  A  GUIDE.  501 

danger — as  horses  make  more  noise,  and  leave  so 
many  traces — must  press  on  at  once,  if  we  ever  hope 
to." 

The  word  was  passed  in  low  tones.  Our  late  pris 
oner,  no  longer  an  object  of  interest,  was  allowed  to 
wander  away  at  his  own  sweet  will.  Flinging  our 
saddles  upon  our  weary  horses,  we  were  in  motion 
almost  instantly.  My  place  was  near  the  middle  of  the 
cavalcade.  The  man  just  before  me  was  riding  a  white 
horse,  which  enabled  me  to  follow  him  with  ease. 

We  galloped  along  at  Dan' s  usual  pace,  with  sublime 
indifference  to  roads — up  and  down  rocky  hills,  across 
streams,  through  swamps,  over  fences — everywhere  but 
upon  public  thoroughfares. 

I  suposed  we  had  traveled  three  miles,  when  Davis 
fell  back  from  the  front,  and  said  to  me  : 

"  That  young  lady  rides  very  well,  does  she  not  V9 

"  What  young  lady  ?" 

"  The  young  lady  who  is  piloting  us." 

I  had  thought  Dan  Ellis  was  piloting  us,  and  rode  for 
ward  to  see  about  the  young  lady. 

There  she  was  !  I  could  not  scrutinize  her  face  in  the 
darkness,  but  it  was  said  to  be  comely.  I  could  see 
that  her  form  was  graceful,  and  the  ease  and  firmness 
with  which  she  sat  on  her  horse  would  have  been  a 
lesson  for  a  riding-master. 

She  was  a  member  of  the  loyal  family  to  which  Dan 
had  gone  for  news.  The  moment  she  learned  his  need, 
she  volunteered  to  pilot  him  out  of  that  neighborhood, 
where  she  was  born  and  bred,  and  knew  every  acre. 
The  only  accessible  horse  (one  belonging  to  a  Rebel 
officer,  but  just  then  kept  in  her  father's  barn)  was 
brought  out  and  saddled.  She  mounted,  came  to  our 
camp  at  midnight,  and  was  now  stealthily  guiding  us — 


502  THE  NAMELESS  HEROINE.  [ises. 

avoiding  farm-houses  where  the  Rebels  were  quartered, 
going  round  their  camps,  evading  their  pickets. 

She  led  us  for  seven  miles.  Then,  while  we  remained 
in  the  wood,  she  rode  forward  over  the  long  "bridge 
which  spanned  the  Nolechucky  River  (now  to  be  crossed 
a  second  time),  to  see  if  there  were  any  guards  upon  it ; 
went  to  the  first  Union  house  beyond,  to  learn  whether 
the  roads  were  picketed ;  came  back,  and  told  us  the 
coast  was  clear.  Then  she  rode  by  our  long  line  toward 
her  home.  Had  it  been  safe  to  cheer,  we  should  cer 
tainly  have  given  three  times  three  for  the  NAMELESS 
HEROINE*  who  did  us  such  vital  kindness.  ' ;  Benisons 
upon  her  dear  head  forever  !" 

*  Nameless  no  more.  The  substantial  closing  of  the  war,  while  these 
pages  are  in  press,  renders  it  safe  to  give  her  name — Miss  MELVINA 
STEVENS. 


1865.]          AMONG  THE  DELECTABLE  MOUNTAINS.          503 


CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

Fortune  is  merry, 

And  in  this  inood  will  give  us  any  thing. 

JULIUS 
The  night  is  long  that  never  finds  the  day. 

MACBETIL 

RELIEVED  again  from  immediate  danger,  every  thing 
seemed  like  a  blessed  dream.  I  was  haunted  by  the 
fear  of  waking  to  find  myself  in  the  old  bunk  at  Salis 
bury,  with  its  bare  and  squalid  surroundings. 

We  were  often  compelled  to  walk  and  lead  our 
weary  animals.  The  rushing  creeks  were  perilous  to 
cross  by  night.  The  rugged  mountains  were  appall 
ing  to  our  aching  limbs  and  frost-bitten  feet.  The  Union 
houses,  where  we  obtained  food  and  counsel,  were  often 
humble  and  rude.  But  we  had  vanquished  the  Giant 
Despair,  and  come  up  from  the  Yalley  of  the  Shadow 
of  Death.  To  our  eyes,  each  icy  stream  was  the  River 
of  Life.  The  frowning  cliffs,  with  their  cruel  rocks,  were 
the  very  Delectable  Mountains ;  and  every  friendly  log 
cabin  was  the  Palace  called  Beautiful. 

After  our  fair  guide  left  us,  Dan's  foot  was  on  his 
native  heath.  Familiar  with  the  road,  he  pressed  on  like 
a  Fate,  without  mercy  to  man  or  beast.  After  the  late 
heavy  rains  it  was  now  growing  intensely  cold.  A  crust, 
not  yet  hard  enough  to  bear,  was  forming  upon  the  mud, 
and  at  every  step  our  poor  horses  sunk  to  the  fetlocks. 

Even  with  frequent  walking  I  found  it  difficult  to 
keep  up  the  circulation  in  my  own  sensitive  feet ;  but 
the  severe  admonition  of  one  frost-bite  had  taught  me 
to  be  very  cautious.  A  young  North  Carolinian,  riding 


504  SEPARATION  FROM  "JuNius." 

a  mule,  wore  nothing  upon  his  feet  except  a  pair  of 
cotton  stockings  ;  that  he  kept  from  freezing  is  one  of  the 
unsolved  mysteries  of  human  endurance. 

Passing  a  few  miles  north  of  Greenville,  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  had  accomplished  twenty- 
five  miles,  despite  all  our  weakness  and  weariness. 

This  "brought  us  to  Lick  Creek,  which  proved  too 
much  swollen  for  fording.  An  old  Loyalist,  living  on 
the  bank,  assured  us  that  guerrillas  were  numerous  and 
vigilant.  Should  we  never  leave  them  "behind  ? 

Ascending  the  stream  for  three  miles,  we  crossed  upon 
the  only  bridge  in  that  whole  region.  Here,  at  least, 
our  rear  was  protected ;  because,  if  pursued,  we  could 
tear  up  the  planks.  Soon  after  dawn,  upon  a  hill-side 
in  the  pine  woods,  we  dismounted,  and  huddled  around 
our  fires,  a  weary,  hungry,  morose,  and  melancholy 
company. 

XXV.    Wednesday,  January  11. 

As  we  drowsed  upon  the  pine  leaves,  I  asked : 

"When  shall  we  join  the  footmen  ?" 

"  After  we  reach  Knoxville,"  was  Dan  Ellis' s  reply. 

This  was  a  source  of  uneasiness  to  Davis  and  myself, 
because  we  had  left  "  Junius"  behind.  He  Avas  offered 
a  horse  when  we  started,  at  midnight.  Supposing,  like 
ourselves,  that  the  parties  would  re-unite  in  a  few  hours, 
and  tired  of  riding  without  a  saddle,  he  declined,  and 
cast  his  lot  among  the  footmen.  It  was  the  first  separa 
tion  since  our  capture.  Our  fates  had  been  so  long  cast 
together,  that  we  meant  to  keep  them  united  until 
deliverance  should  come  for  one  or  both,  either  through 
life  or  death.  But  Treadaway  was  an  excellent  pilot, 
and  the  footmen,  able  to  take  paths  through  the  moun 
tains  where  no  cavalry  could  follow  them,  would  prob' 
ably  have  less  difficulty  than  we. 


1865.]       UNION  WOMEN  SCRUTINIZING  THE  YANKEE.        505 

I  found  an  old  man  splitting  rails,  down  in  a  wooded 
ravine  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  our  camp. 
While  he  went  to  his  house,  a  mile  distant,  to  bring  me 
food,  I  threw  myself  on  the  ground  beside  his  fire  and 
slept  like  a  baby.  In  an  hour,  he  returned  with  a 
basket  containing  a  great  plate  of  the  inevitable  bread 
and  pork.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  daugh 
ter,  who  wanted  to  look  at  the  Yankee.  Coarse-featured 
and  hard-handed,  they  were  smoking  long  pipes ;  but 
they  were  not  devoid  of  womanly  tenderness,  and  earn 
estly  asked  if  they  could  do  any  thing  to  help  us. 

About  noon  we  broke  camp,  and  compelled  our  half- 
dead  horses  to  move  on.  The  road  was  clearer  and  safer 
than  we  anticipated.  At  the  first  farm  which  afforded 
corn,  we  stopped  two  or  three  hours  to  feed  and  rest  the 
poor  brutes. 

Three  of  us  rode  forward  to  a  Union  house,  and  asked 
for  dinner.  The  woman,  whose  husband  belonged  to  the 
Sixteenth  (loyal)  Tennessee  Infantry,  prepared  it  at  once ; 
but  it  was  an  hour  before  we  fully  convinced  her  that 
we  were  not  Rebels  in  disguise. 

We  passed  through  Russelville  soon  after  dark,  and, 
two  miles  beyond,  made  a  camp  in  the  deep  woods. 
The  night  was  very  cold,  and  despite  the  expostulations 
of  Dan  Ellis,  who  feared  they  belonged  to  a  Union  man, 
we  gathered  and  fired  huge  piles  of  rails,  one  on  either 
side  of  us.  Making  a  bed  between  them  of  the  soft, 
fragrant  twigs  of  the  pine,  we  supped  upon  burnt  corn 
in  the  ear.  By  replenishing  our  great  fires  once  an  hour 
we  spent  the  night  comfortably. 

XXVI.   Thursday,  January  12. 

At  our  farm-house  breakfast  this  morning,  a  sister  of 
Lieutenant  Treadaway  was  our  hostess.  She  gave  us  an 


506  "  SLIDE  DOWN  OFF  THAT  HORSE." 

inviting  meal,  in  which  coffee,  sugar,  and  butter,  which 
had  long  been  only  reminiscences  to  us,  were  the  leading 
constituents. 

By  ten  we  were  again  upon  the  road.  Two  or  three 
of  our  armed  men  kept  the  advance  as  scouts,  but  we 
now  journeyed  with  comparative  impunity. 

Some  of  our  young  men,  who  had  long  been  hunted 
by  the  Rebels,  embraced  every  possible  opportunity  of 
turning  the  tables.  No  haste,  weariness,  or  danger  could 
induce  them  to  omit  following  the  track  of  guerrillas, 
wherever  there  was  reasonable  hope  of  finding  the 
game.  On  the  road  to-day,  one  of  these  footmen  met 
a  citizen  riding  a  fine  horse. 

* '  What  are  you,  Southerner  or  Union  V '  asked  the 
boy,  playing  with  the  hammer  of  his  rifle. 

"Well,"  replied  the  old  Tennesseean,  a  good  deal 
alarmed,  "I  have  kept  out  of  the  war  from  the  begin 
ning  ;  I  have  not  helped  either  side." 

"Come  !  come  !  That  will  never  do.  You  don't  take 
me  for  a  fool,  do  you  ?  You  never  could  have  lived  in 
this  country  without  being  either  one  thing  or  the  other. 
Are  you  Union  or  Secession?" 

"  I  voted  for  Secession." 

"Tell  the  entire  truth." 

"Well,  sir,  I  do  ;  I  have  two  sons  in  Johnson' s  army. 
I  was  an  original  Secessionist,  and  I  am  as  good  a  South 
ern  man  as  you  can  find  in  the  State  of  Tennessee." 

"All  right,  my  old  friend;  just  slide  down  off  that 
horse." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  I  mean  that  you  are  just  the  man  I  have  been  look 
ing  for,  in  walking  about  a  hundred  miles  —  a  good 
Southerner  with  a  good  horse  !  I  am  a  Yankee  ;  we 
are  all  Yankees  ;  so  slide  down,  and  be  quick  about  it." 


1865.]          FRIENDLY  WORDS  BUT  HOSTILE  EYES.  507 

Accompanied  by  the  clicking  of  the  rifle,  the  injunc 
tion  was  not  to  be  despised.  The  rider  came  down,  the 
boy  mounted  and  galloped  up  the  road,  while  the  old 
citizen  walked  slowly  homeward,  with  many  a  longing, 
lingering  look  behind. 

We  traveled  twenty-five  miles  to-day,  and  at  night 
made  our  camp  in  the  pine  woods  near  Friend' s  Station. 

As  the  country  was  now  comparatively  safe,  Davis 
and  myself  went  in  pursuit  of  beds.  At  the  first  house, 
two  women  assured  us  that  they  were  good  Union 
people,  and  very  sorry  they  had  not  a  single  vacant 
couch.  Their  words  were  unexceptionable,  but  I  could 
not  see  the  welcome  in  their  eyes.  We  afterward  in 
quired,  and  found  that  they  were  violent  Rebels. 

The  next  dwelling  was  a  roomy  old  farm-house,  with 
pleasant  and  generous  surroundings.  In  answer  to  our 
rap,  a  white-haired  patriarch  of  seventy  came  to  the 
door. 

uCan  you  give  us  supper  and  lodging  to-night,  and 
breakfast  in  the  morning  ?  We  will  pay  you  liberally, 
and  be  greatly  obliged  beside." 

UI  should  be  glad  to  entertain  you,"  he  replied,  in 
tremulous,  childish  treble,  "but  to-night  my  daughters 
are  all  gone  to  a  frolic.  I  have  no  one  in  the  house 
except  my  wife,  who,  like  myself,  is  old  and  feeble." 

The  lady,  impelled  by  curiosity,  now  appearing,  we 
repeated  the  request  to  her,  with  all  the  suavity  and 
persuasiveness  at  our  command,  for  we  were  hungry 
and  tired,  and  the  place  looked  inviting.  She  dryly 
gave  us  the  same  answer,  but  began  to  talk  a  little. 
Presently  we  again  inquired  : 

4 'Will  you  be  good  enough  to  accommodate  us,  or 
must  we  look  farther  V ' 

"What  are  you,  anyhow  1" 


508          HOSPITALITIES  OF  A  LOYAL  PATRIARCH.        [iscs. 

"  Union  men — Yankees,  escaped  from  the  Salisbury 
prison." 

"Why  didn't  you  say  so  before?  Of  course  I  can 
give  you  supper !  Come  in,  all  of  you  !"  The  old  lady 
prepared  us  the  most  palatable  meal  we  had  yet  found, 
and  told  us  the  usual  stories  ot  the  war.  For  hours,  by 
the  log  fire,  we  talked  with  the  aged  couple,  who  had 
three  sons  carrying  muskets  in  the  Union  army,  and 
who  loved  the  Cause  with  earnest,  enthusiastic  devo 
tion.  We  were  no  longer  apprehensive ;  for  they  as 
sured  us  that  the  Rebels  had  never  yet  searched  their 
premises. 

In  this  respect  they  had  been  singularly  fortunate. 
Theirs  was  the  only  one  among  the  hundreds  of  Union 
houses  we  entered,  which  had  not  been  despoiled  by 
Rebel  marauders.  More  than  once  the  Confederates 
had  taken  from  them  grain  and  hay  to  the  value  of  hun 
dreds  of  dollars ;  but  their  dwelling  had  always  been 
respected. 

XXVII.  Friday,  January  13. 

My  poor  steed  gave  signs  of  approaching  dissolution ; 
and  I  asked  the  first  man  I  saw  by  the  roadside : 

1 '  Would  you  like  a  horse  V ' 

< '  Certainly,  stranger. ' ' 

"Very  well,  take  this  one." 

I  handed  him  the  bridle,  and  he  led  the  animal  away 
with  a  look  of  wonder ;  but  it  could  not  have  taken 
him  long  to  comprehend  the  nature  of  my  generosity. 
Several  other  horses  in  the  party  had  died  or  were  left 
behind  as  worthless. 

Our  journey  —  originally  estimated  at  two  hundred 
miles  —  had  now  grown  into  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  by  the  roads.  In  view  of  our  devious  windings, 


1865.]  "OUT   OF   THE    MOUTH    OF    HELL."  509 

we  deemed  three  hundred  and  forty  miles  a  very  moder 
ate  estimate  of  the  distance  we  had  traveled. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  this  twenty- seventh 
day,  came  our  great  deliverance.  It  was  at  Strawberry 
Plains,  fifteen  miles  east  of  Knoxville.  Here — after  a 
final  march  of  seven  miles,  in  which  our  heavy  feet  and 
aching  limbs  grew  wonderfully  light  and  agile  —  in 
silence,  with  bowed  heads,  with  full  hearts  and  with 
wet  eyes,  we  saluted  the  Old  Flag.* 

*  KNOXVILLE,  TENNESSEE,  January  13,  1865. 
"Out  of  the  jaws  of  Death;  out  of  the  mouth  of  Hell." 

ALBERT  D.  RICHARDSON. 
Tribune,  January  14,  1865. 


SONG  FOR  THE     NAMELESS  HEROINE" 


WHO   AIDED   THE    ESCAPING    PRISONERS. 

"  Benisons  on  her  dear  head  forever." 

Words  and  Music  composed  by  B.  R.  HANBY. 

(Published  by  JOHX   CHCRCH,  JR.,    66  West   Fourth   Street,   Cincinnati,  Ohio.) 


1.  Out    of  the  jaws  of  death,  Out  of  the  mouth  of  hell, 

2.  Out  by  the  mountain  path,  Down  thro'  the  darksome  glen, 

3.  "  Nameless,"  for  foes  may  hear,  But  by  our  love  for  thee, 


Weary  and  hungry,  and  fainting  and  sore,  Fiends  on  the  track  of  them, 

Heedless  of  foes,  nor  at  dnn-gordismnyed,         Sharing  their  doubtful  fate, 

Soon  our  bright  sabers  shall  blush  with  their  gore.  Then  shall  our  banner  free, 


THE  NAMELESS  HEROINE. 


511 


55 


:*±*: 


Fiends  at  the  back  of  them,  Fiends  all  around  but  an  an-gel  be-fore. 
Daring  the  tyrant's  hate,  Heart  of  n  lion,  though  form  of     a  maid; 
Wave,  maiden,  over  thee  :  Then,  noble  girl,  thou'lt  be  nameless  no  more. 


CHORUS. 

AIR. 


:p:r=2»: 


1.   Fiends      all         a-round       but  an       an    -     gel       be -fore! 


ALTO. 

—--- 


--  --  ^ 


2.     Hail         to       the    an   -   gel  who     goes       on         be  -  fore, 
..   TENOR. 


3.    Then      we       shall  hail     thee  from  moun  -  tain       to  shore, 
UASS. 


::arz=:gizr:a~^=: : 


«— «-«-4- 

~ 


^ 


512 


THE  NAMELESS  HEROINE. 


:C:=Pi 


Blessings  be  thine,  loyal  maid,  ev  -  er-more  !     Fiends  all  around,  but  an 


Blessings  be  thine,  loyal  maid,  ev  -  er-more  !       Hail   to  the  an-gel  who 


— — g-i 


Bless  thy  brave  heart,  loyal  maid,  ev-er-more !     Then  we  shall  hail  thee  from 


Zlf 


-p *- 


*=S 


•* *- 


an   -    gel  be-fore,  Blessings  be  thine,    lo -yal  maid,  ev-er-morc. 

^^ 


^R=S5; 


^==3^^==&=Srje*==£i. 

goes     on    be-fore,  Blessings  be  thine,     lo- yal  maid,  ev- er-more. 


moun  -  tain  to  shore,       Bless  thy  brave  heart, lo-  yal  maid,  ev  -  er-more. 


.. I r^    II 

E^=g^=pgEgE|^ 


« P «h 


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